AUS The Faith Book 2
by ShadowMoonSedai
Summary: Now that everything's getting settled, Sarah's got a new laundry list of problems to handle - School like she's never seen, being kidnapped, and a secret from a fellow teammate that promises to bring her own secrets into the open.
1. Boredom

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Heiya again, all. Welcome to the second book in The Animorphs Alternate-Universe Series. If you haven't read the first one, I suggest you do. It's called The Difference_ and it's under my Author ID, so... have fun! - SMS_

The Animorphs Alternate-Universe Series

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Book 2: The Faith

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Chapter 1: Boredom

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(Sarah)

Of all the Four Gods curses… _school_, on top of a Mission, on top of… other things. Many other things… and the list was getting longer.

"Aren't we up early?" Alay clambered into my window sill from the outside and positioned herself as Tobias landed in the branches behind her. "And looking quite nice. All ready for school?" I swept a hairbrush through my hair and tied it with a red ribbon that matched the jacket I had found in the closet. 

"Not entirely," I answered. "I think this is a bad idea. A very bad idea. I should be focusing on finishing my Mission."

"Mission schmission," replied Alay. "Besides, you don't have a choice. You have to keep up this… foster child guise thing. And foster children - _normal_ foster children, that is, go to school."

"_Kithe na,_" I told her, making a face. "Marco is coming over to come with me on the bus - but I do not know when he is coming."

He's here, answered Tobias. Good thing your foster parents leave early. He morphed to come here.

"Isn't he special?" quipped Alay dryly. I rolled my eyes - there was no stopping it. Alay and Marco just simply did not like each other.

Ah, early morning sarcasm. Alay, how did I ever get through a day before you came here? Marco landed on the ground outside my window and demorphed. I turned back to the mirror to fix my _Aen Haihi_, so as to avoid having to watch. It was not a pretty sight to watch and a sight I wanted to avoid seeing. "Shove over, psycho, and let me in."

"Apparently, stupidity leaves no room for manners," commented Alay as she slid off the window sill. Marco hoisted himself through the window and dropped down to the floor. He wore a pair of jeans that were semi-tight fitting and a sleeveless shirt that fit the same style - not tight enough to be too tight, but tight enough to stay with him when he morphed. 

"Ready for your first day, Sarah?" he asked me, brushing a strand of hair from his face. My heart skipped a beat and I forced myself to nod with a small grin, instead of a stupid, dorky grin of someone who was simply… in awe of how gorgeous someone could look brushing their hair out of their eyes. And, at the same time, I had to tell myself I was _not_ developing a thing for Marco. Despite the fact he was cute and getting cuter every time I saw him, despite the fact he made me laugh and was just so… wonderful, even despite the fact he was becoming everything I had ever hoped for in a member of the opposite sex - I was _not _developing a thing for on him. He was an ally, not fully trusted, but trusted enough to count, _and _he was my student, on top of that. Things were complicated enough without…

Your bus is coming soon, said Tobias, interrupting my reverie. You should get going.

"What are you going to do while we are in school?" I asked Alay as I gathered up the school things my foster parents had bought for me. 

"Watch from the shadows and laugh at you," she replied brightly. I rolled my eyes.

"You would," I stated calmly. "But why not try doing something _useful_ for a change, like training? You were a little soft the other day, I noticed."

"_Shena_," spat Alay. "Just because you beat me…" She stuck out her tongue and flipped her ponytail over her shoulder. "Besides, I just _know_ you'll need some kind of help today and our boy Marco here won't be able to protect you _all _day." Marco shot her a dirty look, but I only shook my head.

"Do what you will," I told her. "Just stay out of trouble - and do not go looking for it either."

"Me?" she asked innocently. "Trouble?" Marco snorted, but made no comment, leaving it open for me to take up.

"Even _he_ knows you are a trouble maker and he has only known you a handful of days - I have known you that many years and then some. I _know_ you look for trouble, especially if you are bored."

"But I won't be bored!" she protested. "Promise."

"I, personally, am not so worried about you being bored," said Marco. "I'm more worried about what you're gonna do you keep yourself occupied." I could not have said it better myself. Alay - and myself, I will admit- had been known to cause trouble, if only to end the boredom that could result when we were not fighting or learning to fight. First, though, it had been Emily and I that had been the cause of trouble, simply out of dislike of being there - even though I had gone willingly with her, Emily had been forced into the Academy, out of her own safety and the safety of those around her… when _seherai raishai_ awaken, they can either do nothing and simply _exist_ suddenly, _or_ they can awaken with a bang. Emily's chose to awaken with a bang… and then… well, it was not good.

After Alay and Sadie arrived at the school, my sister calmed down. In Sadie, she had someone who was in the Academy unwillingly, but was not going to slack off and was going to throw everything she had into becoming a Caster. So I looked for my fun with Alay… and between us, we caused more woe to the poor Teachers and Trainers then any other pair of students in the history of the Academy. "Boredom" was a word we lived to banish. So was the word "sanity".

"Oh, shut up," snapped Alay irately. "I'll be fine. Tobias will watch over me, woncha Tobias?"

I fear, yet again, you're not leaving me with much choice, he commented dryly. Don't worry, he told me privately. I'll watch her. If she tries anything, you'll be the first to know.

_A lot of good that is going to do me, _I told him. _If I am stuck is some class, I will not be able to rush out and come to join the fun. _Tobias was silent a moment as Alay and Marco launched into a customary argument (essentially, they insulted each other back and forth until one of them called the other something and the other could not come up with a retort).

Why am I not surprised that you would consider getting into trouble fun? asked _mi atala_. Because you're insane, that's why.

_Would you rather I not be insane?_

What kind of question is that? You know I wouldn't have you any other way. I grinned at him.

"She-male!"

"I am _not_ that kind of _nec'rin,_ damn it!" There was silence.

"…huh?"

_Nec'rin_, huh. Tobias preened a wing idly. I'm not surprised.

"Who asked you, bird?" rejoined Alay sharply. "I don't remember including you in on this argument."

"_Jaia, itala_," I said, laying a hand on her shoulder. "Tobi'as did not mean any harm. Neither did Marco. They just did not know." Alay muttered something under her breath, but even my heightened hearing could not understand it. 

"What's a _nec'rin?_" asked Marco, interrupting me before I could ask Alay to repeat herself.

Alay's a lesbian, Marco, said Tobias plainly. She likes girls. Plain and simple, that is _mi atala…_

"I _know_ what a lesbian is, bird-boy," said Marco blandly. He too muttered something, but this time I heard it. "Competition"(?). Why was a lesbian "competition"? Alay seemed to understand, because she threw her head back and laughed.

"In your dreams, little boy," she told him. "There's so very little you understand right now. Don't worry!" she added brightly. "I'll tell ya when you're older." That set off another Argument, while Tobias and I just watched, me shaking my head, Tobias adding silent commentary only I could hear. It was unfortunate Marco and I had school to attend… this was certainly a lot of fun.


	2. Lunch Hour Rush

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The Animorphs Alternate-Universe Series

The Faith

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Chapter 2 - Lunch Hour Rush

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(Marco)

Sarah twirled the plastic knife in her fingers as she lay out on the grass beside me. One of her feet was bouncing to the rhythm of a song only she could hear, but she was humming softly under her breath as a gentle breeze teased the bottom edge of her white shirt and stray hairs that had freed themselves from her ponytail. She look absolutely relaxed and calm, but, if you actually knew Sarah, she was never calm if she was relaxed - not to mention some part of me had a distinct feeling that something was bothering her. I wasn't sure how I knew but… I did. Something was wrong.

"How has it gone so far today?" I asked her as I idly picked at the hot lunch "food". Sarah's lunch was half eaten and, since she had taken less then half of what I had, she hadn't really eaten at all.

"It has gone fairly well," she told me quietly. "But…" The knife stopped twirling and she sat up, pulling her knees to her chest. "What did the other me do to cause Rachel to dislike me as she does? It cannot be simply because Tob'ias is _mi atala_." I glanced at Rachel out of the corner of my eye - seated with Cassie and some other girls I hardly knew, she was shooting discreet dirty looks at Sarah every so often. I had caught a handful of them, but it was obvious she had been doing more often then I was looking. When Rachel's jealous, she's **_Jealous_**, with a capital "J".

"The other you and Tobias were really close," I explained to Sarah with a shrug, trying to act nonchalant. Rachel's jealousy was _really_ irritating, especially because it was completely unbased and just… annoying. It got in the way of a lot of things, even though both Tobias and Sarah had made it quite clear that any type of more-then-friendly relationship was complete incest and therefore, not going to happen. But, for whatever reason, Rachel still saw Sarah as Competition. 

"How close?" asked Sarah, leaning one elbow on her knee and looking at me with curiosity in those gorgeous blue eyes… God, I could have died a happy man then. Her eyes, like that, were just so… innocent. Trusting. Beautiful. I had never seen anything like that in her eyes… Anger, hatred, fear, pain, happiness, or what was close to happiness but never anything so sweet as the blatant curiosity. 

"Uhh, it was kind of a… thing." Way to be smooth, Marco. "A brother-sister thing." Nice save! "You confided a lot in each other and you were always there to help Tobias - and Ax - even when you wouldn't help us. The other you wasn't the greatest example of a teammate."

"_Kithe_, that was not the same me, though," she said, curiosity changing to irritation. Again, kill me now, so I can die happy. _Everything_ that came across in her eyes was just such… pure emotion. It was so… hot. Every other girl I had dated or met was always so guarded or spent more time flirting but not Sarah. She was Sarah and didn't care who knew it. The only other person like that was Rachel and… well, she was a hopeless case. Not that I chance with Sarah anyway but I digress. 

"Rachel doesn't know that," I pointed out. "Not that it would matter - you spend a lot of time with Tobias too."

"He is _mi atala_," she said, frustrated. "For him and I to… _ciora_," she said, shuddering.

Thanks, _itala_, came Tobias's sardonic thought speak. You know, I'm not so far away that I can't hear you. Sarah giggled.

"Of course, that is not to say Tobi'as is not cute - he is, in a vapid way," she said, poking at the ground with the knife. "Because vanity is just so… _kith_." With the way the word rolled off her tongue, it was easily to tell that "kith" meant something like hot. Well, damn, then maybe I _did_ stand a chance. Of course, she was being sarcastic on Tobias' behalf, but still…

Ow…ow… ow…. _Kithe na_, Sarah, stop poking me! Sarah jerked her hand back and I gripped her elbow as an unfamiliar thought-speak filled my head. It sounded mildly grating and positively arrogant so that meant…

"_Mei? Itala?_" asked Sarah, surprised. "_Mei…?_" She scooped up something off of the ground and held it out in front of her. It was a medium sized spider, about half the size of Sarah's palm, and it sat there quite calmly, looking up at her.

_That form suits you,_ I thought in its direction. 

Hahaha, aren't you funny? came the new voice. It _was_ Alay! Not bad for my first morph. Although, the poking thing wasn't so fun…

"Sorry," giggled Sarah. She was silent a moment, conversing with Alay in human to morph thought speak.

Yeah, yeah, I'm being good. All right, time to do the real bug thing and scamper off like I'm absolutely terrified to death of you big 'ole human creatures… well, maybe you Sarah. Marco's about my size, so he's not really scary, just ugly. She raced off, scampering down Sarah's arm, while I debated just how useful she was to the saving-the-world cause - certainly I could squash her and it wouldn't cause any problem…?

"At least we know now what that Ellimist said was true," said Sarah quietly. "We all have it, in addition to the rest of you…" I nodded and gently released my hold on her elbow. It probably wasn't a good idea to hold onto her for dear life like that. "_Kithe mia,_ now I am really afraid…"

"Afraid?" I asked her. "Of… the thing?" She nodded, knowing what I meant by "the thing". The morphing "thing", of course. "Why?"

"I am just… afraid. Of losing myself," she said quietly. "That is all." Losing herself, in the morph. We were all afraid of that, deep down. I was. Every time I morphed, I wanted to stop, go back to being human, because maybe this would be the morph where I would stop being Marco and start being something else… and never be able to go back to being Marco. And the only thing I could do about it was push the fear aside and tough it out. I was an Animorph and no matter how scared I was, there were more important things that I needed to do…

"_Na deha_, Alay's opinion is a little biased," said Sarah, mercifully changing the subject. 

"What do you mean?" I asked her, returning to picking at the unknown substance I had paid money for… just much profit did the lunch staff make, when they were feeding us other peoples' leftovers?

"I mean, she does not like boys," shrugged Sarah. "So she really should not make opinions on who is ugly and who is not, when the person is male, at least."

"Oh?" Was she trying to soothe my injured pride or… what? It wasn't really injured just… slightly wounded. A surface wound. Most people took cracks at my looks, especially those who knew I was vain. And Alay… well, it was true. She liked girls, so she really couldn't judge the extent of my good looks and sexual appeal… because she liked girls. And I wasn't a girl. So there.

"_Jain, _Marco,_ Ia dehi_ _na anjeli._" She turned her head back to the trees where Tobias lurked and glared. 

All right, all right, no comments, came his thought speak voice.

Whee! I can still make 'em though! cheered Alay. Sarah thinks you're cute, Marco. Awwww, that's sweet. Sarah turned back and buried her face in her arms, shaking with laughter.

"I should have killed her when I had the chance," she told me, as I grinned at her. So she thought I was cute… that was nice. Really really really nice. REALLY nice.

"Hey, she didn't call you ugly," I said. "I have more excuse then you do." She threw her head back and laughed, while I did a little internal victory dance. Of all the things anyone had ever said, that was the best, most greatest thing…

Whoohoo, she thought I was cute!


	3. Cowardly Anger

The Animorphs Alternate-Universe Series

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The Faith

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Chapter 3 - Cowardly Anger

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(Marco)

The last bell rang - thankfully - and there was a semi-mad rush to the door. Sarah, who shared my last class with me, hung back and waited until everyone except me had gone before gathering up her stuff.

"So what did you think?" I asked her, as she slipped a notebook into her bag. She gave me an odd look, and shook her head, but said nothing. "What's wrong?" Why was I getting the weird look? I hadn't done anything to her - that I knew of, at least. 

"_Jaiaiedetha_," she murmured. "Not here, I will tell you when we are in a safe place." She cast a glance at the teacher's back, then slung her backpack over her shoulder and strolled from the room calmly, as if nothing was bothering her. But it was the "smooth" walk, what Tobias called the "Weapon Stalk". She was in a Weapon mindset, which was very intense to behold. But, beneath the ice cold looks she was giving people, she was… afraid. Afraid and I knew it, which caused me to be afraid. Why was I able to so easily sense when something serious was bothering her...?

She paused at her locker and I moved to her side, where the side of the locker would hide our conversation from some and the back of our heads hid the conversation from all the rest. 

"The teacher is a Caster," she said flatly. "Him, and there is another, at least." I stood there, stunned, while she rifled through her locker. "Listen, I know it sounds insane, but… what if there are people here who _knew_ all this time about the Casting in your people? At some point, someone's power had to awaken in a bad way."

"A bad way?" I repeated. "How so?" She gave me a level glance, as if I had asked the dumbest question known to man.

"_Seharai raishai,_" she murmured, taking one notebook from her backpack and replacing it with another from her locker. "The sleeping soul. When a Caster's power awakens, it is the _seharai raisha_ that begins to grow. Mine awakened quietly - as did yours, as did _mi atala_, Tobi'as. _Mi itelane_, on the other hand, threw me into the side of barn." 

"Why?" Of all the stupid questions to ask, it seemed like the best at the time.

"Because it was jealous," she shrugged. "_Seharai rashai_ are not like _seharai nendei_. The _nendei_ are merely beings in a timeless existence, as Head Caster Hannah once put it. _Seharai rashai_ are attached to humans and, therefore, feed off of human emotion. They are jealous of other _Seharai raishai_ and will attack those that are weaker - which I was, and still am. But Emily's is now grounded, like mine, and is a part of her - controllable, useable, not wild and destructive."

"Okay, so wait a minute, are you telling me you think that there are people _here_, in this dimension, that can Cast - _willingly_?" She nodded. "How in the hell would anyone not know about this? Casting is kind of a _big_ thing."

"_Jaia,_ Marco, _jaia_," she said, shaking her head. "It does not have to be. It has small uses as well as big. "Attack" and "Heal" Casts do not make up more then half of the Castings known by the Academy. Many Casters make Art by manipulating _seharai nendeai. _Some cook, some build things, some weave, or do not even use their power beyond simple everyday tasks. I know I sound like I am making this up, but I _know_ that teacher used a Cast. I do not know what for, but I sensed… a shift. You know what I mean by that." A shift, when the air felt different or when the ground seemed to move on its own or something to that extent. I had learned that, from Sarah, and from watching her Cast. Things _changed_ when a Caster did their thing - the little guys that they used for their Casts were taken away from the spots they had been in since who knows when and used for something else and anyone with half an ounce of Caster in them can feel that change. 

"_Kithe mia,_" she swore lightly. "I should have asked Tobi'as if Alay saw anything…"

"Alay?" I repeated, confused. "Alay, who can't Cast her way out of a paper bag? Alay, who doesn't have even a tiny bit of Caster in her, just all psycho? That Alay?"

"That Alay," Sarah replied. "She is… _kithe,_ what is the word…? _Nendai nendei_. She can _see_ the _seharai nendei_, if she tries to. Very few people can do that - and _no_ Casters can, not one. We can merely sense the changes. If I had asked Alay, she could have told me how many had gone and where… that would make this easy - easier, at least." I only nodded… Casters, people who _knew_ how to Cast, in my world. How? Since when? And for the love of all things holy, _who_?

"So what do we do then?" I asked, surprising myself slightly by saying 'we'. Usually, I wasn't for anything involving school or danger and this had the flavor of both, which was bad. But Sarah only shrugged.

"Nothing for now, I guess," she answered. "There _is_ nothing we can do, not until I know for certain that I really felt a shift and that I am not losing my mind. Although…" She gave a soft chuckle and shook her head. "Never mind."

"You can't be sure you haven't already." She paused and looked at me, then nodded slowly. I wasn't sure why but she looked… lonely. Beneath the fierce sapphire there was a pain. She felt like she was alone on this. "Sarah, you aren't…aren't… alone." My voice sounded weak, even to me, but Sarah paled slightly.

"I… do not know… what you are talking about," she said flatly, turning back into her locker. "Of course I am alone. There is no one else who has this Mission but myself."

"Sarah!" I grabbed her wrist and made her face me. "This isn't a Mission!" She made me angry, saying that. So angry… I didn't know why. There was so much I didn't know, then, but Sarah and her self-sacrificial attitude irritated the hell out of me. Why didn't she see she was needed for something bigger…?

"This isn't a Mission," I repeated, the heat my voice surprising me as it stunned her. "This _isn't_ your world. We don't _have_ Missions here." I barely remembered to lower my voice, since a school wasn't the best place to be getting on Sarah's case. "We have Yeerks, we have Horks, we have two new Controllers who are infested by Yeerks who play by the rules of _this _dimension. I _know_ who they are to you and I _know_ they're your Mission, but if you don't cut this crap and focus on winning the war in the bigger picture, than you can't help them. Visser Three's lost someone who can take down ten Hork-Bajir on her own, never mind the "Andalites" who are fighting him on Earth. He's not letting two who can control the Elements of friggin' nature get away as easily." 

"_Jaia_, _farae_, you have a lot to learn." She yanked her wrist from my grip and gave me a glare that sent a chill through me. "Regardless of where I am or whose side I am on, my _Mission_ is the most important thing-- _Mi itelan _-and- _mi itala _are the most important things. More important then saving your world, more important then my own life. If I die for them, then I have completed my Mission honorably. Besides, what would you know about Missions? You are not a Weapon. _Na farae._" She stepped back and shut her locker, quietly, not slamming it. "The only thing at stake for you is your life and you value that more then anything"

"You have no idea," I interrupted furiously. No one- _no one_ had ever gotten me so angry before. "You're so wrapped up in _your_ thing that you don't know anything about anyone. Because of you, I can't have a real conversation with my best friend. Because of you, I have to be careful around _everyone_, unless I want to risk accidentally Casting. And because of you, I can't go back to being normal, ever, not even after this is over. _Ever_." I felt a strange burning against the skin of my chest, under my shirt, but I ignored in favor of the burning anger that was surging through my veins. It was one thing for someone who knew me to call me a coward - most of the time, it was a joke. But for this… this girl who knew hardly anything about me, beside my name and the fact that I could Cast, to assume that I was a spineless… it made me angry. Furious. The lives of my friends were- _are_ stake, my father's life, too. They were my family, all I had…

Then it clicked. Her reasoning… Why she was the way she was and why she acted like she did… because she was like me. Her heart was invested in the people who knew her and, trapped like she was, in a dimension that was the stark opposite to what she was used to, all she had were those who had come with her. The ones who played for the other team…

"My intention was never to destroy your life." Her voice was soft, solemn. "_Ia…_ I am sorry, Marco." She slung her backpack over her shoulder and walked away, while I just stood there, sorting through the things I had realized. Sarah…

My anger was gone, but the burning at my chest remained. My hand went to the spot, even as Sarah disappeared through the doors at the end of the hallway. There was something… under my shirt, something heavy, something I didn't remember putting there.

I yanked the mystery item out of my shirt and held it tightly. Something on a chain… I never wore anything around my neck. And I hadn't put anything around my neck that morning…

_I appoint you as guardian of my sister…_

The dagger… the knife, that Emily had given me, that day in the clearing. Sarah's guardian…

"Well, doesn't that explain a few things." I gave a low chuckle and shook my head. The weird vibes, the whole understanding Sarah's mood thing… because of this little dagger. I didn't know what it was, but it connected me to her. The burning had been because of her anger. Now it was lukewarm, but holding it, I felt sick. Not to my stomach but just… sick. This was how Sarah was feeling… how I had made her feel.

_My intention was never to destroy your life._ I felt impossibly dumb, standing there, alone, in a school hallway, after school was out, holding a small knife and just… gaping. Talk about stupid. Of course she wasn't trying to ruin my life, she had been trying to save it by teaching me to Cast and, more than that, teaching me how to fight…

_Crap… crap crap crap crap crap. … Crap. _There was no other word for the hole I was standing in. I had to find some way to dig myself out and soon…


	4. Kidnapped!

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The Animorphs Alternate-Universe Series

The Faith

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Chapter 4 - Kidnapped! But by What Side…?

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(Sarah)

"Are you absolutely sure…?"

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"Look, I know what I heard. Besides, check out her…"

"… damn." 

"Damn right, damn. She's a Weapon. Anya has the bruises to prove it."

"… She bruised Anya? Anya who-hasn't-taken-a-hit-from-anyone-since-her-tenth-birthday Anya? That Anya?"

"Do we have another Anya is this motley crew? I think not, genius."

My head felt distant, separate. My throat was dry and raw, my brain useless mush. I remembered arguing with Marco… leaving him… ambushed from behind the instant the school doors thudded shut. I had gotten off a hit on someone but it was not enough. He, or she, had gotten the upper hand and pinned me to the ground. Before I could get away, I had a felt a shift and then… nothing.

_Sleep Cast…_ A Sleep Cast. Wonderful. Just _wonderful._ Casters. I was beginning to really hate Casters…

"Heya, she's coming around… I think…" The fog was dispersing from my brain and fuzzy, distant voices became closer.

"Oh yeah, she's coming around. Nice Cast - can't even keep a girl down for more then an hour. Way t' go, Bubbles."

_Whap! _"Don't call me "Bubbles"!" My eyes opened reluctantly - a white tiled ceiling with brown inlay… the shadow of someone, someone who was standing in front a light source. A lamp, since the shadow never flickered. Vaguely, I felt the air around me recovering from a change in the orientation of the _seharai nendeai_. I shifted my head slightly and took in more of the room - four walls, no windows, two doors, one of which was latched, the other was which was blocked by the largest dog I had ever seen. Teslahani use herd dogs that usually stand to the knee on all fours - this beast was about hip level with the boy who was standing next to it, rubbing his cheek with a smirk. Between him and me was another boy, his back turned away from me. Neither of them looked any different from any one I had seen in this world. Certainly, they weren't dressed in proper Caster attire or even that of the Caster Trainees. But… they were Casters. It was easy to see in the way they held themselves - they _knew_ what they could do and they did not care who else knew it too.

"Oh! Good afternoon, _lina kithiaei_. Sleep well?" The one behind the monster dog cocked his head to the side and regarded me with strangely deep green eyes. I tried to focus on him, but my vision was still blurred and my mind was still fuzzy - it took a moment for me to register the fact he had called me 'little sunshine' in my own language.

"_Na… nades Teslahanen…?"_ I managed to get out. My tongue felt useless and heavy in my mouth and my voice sounded strange because of it. _"Ia… iades Teslahnae… Tylyr matalan Sarah…_" If I had been in my right mind, I would have refrained from telling so much to someone so strange to me… but there was something about the Cast he had put on me that made my tongue speak before my brain could tell it to shut up.

Both of them were silent a moment and, in that moment, the monster dog trotted over to me and began to sniff my face. The thing was big enough to bite off my head, should it choose to do so, and when it opened its mouth, I was absolutely certain that was its plan - instead, the thing _licked_ me, a great big slobbery lick. Nothing will wake you up like the smell of dog breath. _Yech_.

"_Kithe!_" I scrambled onto the back of the couch I had been laying on and crouched there, ready to attack the first thing that came my way. I was still slightly disoriented and more then slightly nervous - Casters. Casters and I was not home… that would mean they were possibly bad Yeerks and therefore, I was in a deeper hole then ever.

"_Na hida, Tylyr matalan Sarah,_" said the boy gently.

"_Hida?"_ I repeated. "Why in the Five Hells would I want to calm down? You _kidnapped_ me, thank you very much."

"Oh, so you _do_ speak English." The boy left the door and approached me carefully. "I won't hurt you - I don't think I could. You're a Weapon, aren't you?" I watched him as closely as he was watching me and gave a slow nod. "From where?"

"… _mei?_"

"From which group," explained the other boy, as if that helped me. "Texas, Los Angeles, New York?" I fought down a blank, confused look - what were all these places? Where they had more Casters? New York was the only one that sounded familiar, but that was because it had been Alay's home… nowhere in my world did we have "Texas" or "Los Angeles".

"New York," I answered calmly. 

"And your Caster?" Another moment of blankness before I caught on - they had they same Caster/Weapon system as we did. A Weapon guarded a Caster, therefore, since I was a Weapon, I needed to have a Caster.

"Hey, I'll bet it was that boy, the one she was arguing with," said the other one. "That's why you're here, then, to protect him, because I _know_ he's from around here."

"Marco?" asked the first, confused. "But he isn't…" He looked at me and I merely glared back - I still wasn't sure I was safe with them. "Never mind." He knew… he knew Marco wasn't one of their own. But now he knew Marco could Cast… that put Marco in danger.

"_Jaia_, he is not my Caster," I answered flatly. "I do not have one, as of the moment. That is why I am here - because I was told to find one and this was the first place I thought of to look… In your group, I mean." If there is one thing Weapons are trained for, it is lying. I could lie through a Truth Cast, the need be.

"Garfield, come." The dog, which had been watching me as I crouched in fear of the thing on the back of the couch, moved and lumbered over to the boy to lay at his feet. "Good dog. Miss, please, come off the couch. You are among friends here - we will take you to see my father. He's the head of our group." I gave a wary nod and slowly climbed off the couch. I had to be on my guard - regardless of whether they were Casters, there was still a risk of them being Yeerks… I had to be cautious. 

"This way. Garfield, heel." The dog rose from its feet and followed the first boy through the unlatched door and up a flight of stairs. The other boy and I stood there for a moment, both of us wanting to be at the end, to keep an eye on the other. Finally, I gave in and went next, with him following me. 

Very cautious indeed.


	5. Random Interlude

Some Random Things that I Think About

All right, in regards to the fact that I keep forgetting to post chapters (school, theatre, school… school, work, school), I present another random interlude. These are various things that will most likely never be explained in the story but, eh, what're you gonna do?

Q: What exactly are Sarah's gods?

A: Uhm, well, they're gods, simple as that. There's twenty total – Kithier, the ubergodess of Fire, is Sarah's highest worshipped personal god. Shalier, ubergoddess of Water, is Emily's. The other two ubergods, Halien and Lethlien (Earth and Air, respectively) are worshipped by various people of the Teslahani religion. Underneath all of the ubergods are four minor gods/goddesses. At the moment, I don't have that list, but they do various things and are generally much more involoved in the lives of their followers than that of "normal" gods. 

Q: What's "Seharenae"?

A: Sarah's Teslahani name! Seharen is a minor(er) god, the God of Death, and is actually a newer god, as far as gods go. Originially, the closest the Teslahani had to a God of Death was Medshae, who, in the end, was destroyed by the other gods for various reasons, including mass murder of the unneccasary kind, and accepting blood sacrifices in exchange for power, a Higher Power no-no. Anyway, sometime after the Teslahani settled on the land, from where they lived on the "Sea Crest", a group of islands that were also destroyed in the process of destroying Medshae, a pair of human twins were abandoned by their mother, and adopted by the gods. One was sleeping while the other was awake, when the God found them, so they named the sleeping on "Seharen", or "Sleeping boy" and the girl "Emailae", or "Bright Girl". How, or why, they were given the powers of life and death over mortal creatures is still a mystery, even to their followers. Especially to their followers, actually. 

Q: Back to the Name thing!

A: Sorry! Sarah's Teslahani name, Seharenae, was given to her because she was born on the 20th day of the month, which is Seharenei, and also because she is a twin. All twins are named Seharen(ae) and Emaila(en) for their birth names and are given other names for their common names. The 'ae' and 'en' endings depend on the sex on the child. If the first twin born is a girl, she is named SeharenAE and if it is a boy, it is simply Seharen. If the second child born is a girl, she is named Emailae, and if it is a boy, he is named EmailaEN

Q: Is that all?

A: Hai. ^_^


	6. Why We Are The Way We Are

__

The Animorphs Alternate-Universe Series

The Faith

****

Chapter 5 - Why We Are the Way We Are

__

Tobias

If this wasn't completely random and unnecessary, I'd blame the Ellimist. Given, the last time she went missing, it was completely random and unnecessary but this is more so, so… it wasn't him. Alay paused and sniffed the ground, then growled. This is useless. She hasn't been this way.

The school's crawling with Yeerks, I said. So we have to do this blind, unless we want to get caught. There's no way we could pick up her trail from there, anyway.

If they've got her, wouldn't it be a better idea to _start_ there?

Not really, no.

Screw this. She sat back on her haunches and demorphed. Fur was sucked into black and when she stood, she took a moment to brush dirt off the back of her tight black pants. Alay was the first person I had met who insisted on being fully clothed when morphing - given, what she was wearing didn't really qualify as clothing, but it was very close. Only Rachel came close the an actual morphing outfit, whenever she wore one of her old gymnastic leotards, but in a tight black tank top and even tighter pants, Alay was fully dressed - and fully unamused. 

Now what? I asked. She had been in a foul mood ever since Sarah had failed to show up at the meeting, the one where we were supposed to explain Alay's presence to the group. Without Sarah there, the meeting had been general things, and Alay had stayed in the shadows of the rafters, watching. After the meeting was over, we had checked all of the usual places and, since Sarah hadn't been _there_, we were reduced to checking everywhere else.

"Now we do this the proper way - the best way to find a Weapon is to use a Weapon. And we're starting at the school." If I had been human, I would have rolled my eyes.

You're begging to get captured, aren't you? She raised an eyebrow, then laughed. It wasn't a nice laugh either, just something completely… dark, almost scary. 

"Tobias, if I get caught by Controllers, then I honestly don't deserve to be a Weapon. Now…" She looked up at me. "I'm gonna need a favor of you - Will you fly above me and keep an eye on my back-trail? And my front-trail, just in case? I won't need you at the school, not that you'd be useful there anyway, but anywhere there might be some kind of… attack, waiting for me."

I'll do what I can, but I only have an hour on this morph - I think we need to get someone else to help, as well.

"I'll help." Marco stepped out of the bushes behind Alay - I hadn't heard him coming, nor had Alay, by the way she paled and looked positively disturbed. 

"Hey now," she said sharply. "Sarah's been teaching you more then she should have been. No sneaking up on me, midget." He gave her a weak half-smile.

"Sorry, psycho." Something was bothering Marco - usually, he would have made some retort to the "midget" comment, but he just seemed to get over it quickly enough. I knew as much as he did how much he liked Sarah - it was obvious every time he looked at her - so it was possible that he was just worried but… this was Marco. Tension gave him something to joke about. This wasn't just worry, it was full out apprehension. 

"You better morph something that can fly, 'cause there's no way in Hell you can keep up with me." Alay was in a very subtle way (subtle, as least for her) trying to bring out the old Marco - this serious Marco was obviously as unsettling to her as it was to me. But he only nodded and began to morph owl. As he did this, I demorphed quickly, then remorphed owl. It was tiring but… Sarah was in trouble. There was no doubt about that. And I wasn't going to stop until I found her…

Sarah's _mi itala_, my sister, the only one I've ever had and the only family I will ever admit to having. I met her on the first day of school - she had moved in with her foster family over the summer and, since her foster family lived out in the country, she rode the bus with me. She seemed to be one of those people who just… did things. When she first stepped on the bus, she didn't hesitate to head to the first available seat, which was the same one as mine. She at least asked if she could sit, but I never actually answered her, she just sat and seemed comfortable to do so. The bus ride was quiet, while I debated whether I should say something to her and while she sat there, braiding her still wet hair. 

_"You know," _she had said. _"This is my first time on a school bus._" It was a strange way to start a conversation and a strange thing to say period, but it wasn't hard to tell she was just… strange. Strange and loving every minute of it. _"Back home, we are usually home schooled, except in the bigger cities, where people can usually afford private teachers._" Her accent intrigued me from the start - it seemed to be something all together different from accents I had heard before. I had sat silently, trying to figure out where it could possibly be from while she finished her hair, then leaned one elbow on the back of the seat in front of us and regarded me with a grin. _"What is your name?"_ It had taken me a minute to answer her - between her accent and the fact her eyes had stunned me into stupidity, I had to scramble to _remember_ my name. I admit it - in those first few minutes, I had felt the beginnings of a crush for this strange, beautiful, foreign girl. But that changed when someone leaned over the seat and stuck their head directly between us - it was another new student, one I hadn't met yet, but disliked immediately. 

_"So… you're new here?_" he asked, using a tone I automatically recognized as flirtatious. Sarah, despite her lack of English skills, seemed to recognize it too.

_"I am," _she had replied coolly. _"But not so new I do not know my way around town - thank you for the offer though." _There was a stunned silence where the new guy tried to figure out where he had gone wrong and I tried not to laugh out loud. My almost-crush had ended right there and in the next moment. See, while I had been trying had to laugh out loud, I did snicker, which turned the guy's attention to me. He glared at me and opened his mouth to say something, when he was not-so-gently shoved back. He hit the seat with a thud and Sarah got up on her knees to look back at him.

_"I was having a conversation with him first, thank you," _she told him. _"But you may have a male-bonding moment when we are done - and, just to let you know, it may be awhile, so do not hold your breath._ _Thank you." _She flashed him a smile before plopping back into the seat next to me. _"_Reca merde mia,_" _she had told me flatly, causing me to give her a blank look. Her language was just nice to listen to but I hadn't understood a word of it. She just giggled._ "I am sorry. I forgot… well, that is beyond the point. Your name?"_

"Huh?" Complete blank moment while my brain informed that any relationship with someone who could tongue-tie people - and knock around people without any remorse- was impossible. Friends would suffice.

_"Your name, _vercha_?"_

"_Oh… right. Tobias." S_he nodded briskly.

__

"Tobi'as, I am Sarah." Sarah… a completely normal name for someone who was about as far from normal as could be - _and_ she had mispronounced my name.

_"Sarah," _I repeated_. "It's Tobias."_

"Yes," she said, nodding._ "Tobi'as."_

"To-bi-ahs."

"Too-bee-us." I decided then that giving was better then continuing what was an impossible argument - she just couldn't pronounce the vowel right.

_"Close enough,_" I finally told her. She had grinned, making me grin back - no crush, but a new friend was always nice. Especially one like her…

That first few weeks of school were an adventure, if anything else. Sarah seemed to be an absolutely normal school girl - she got through most classes okay, excelled in gym, did not so great in English, but was definitely outgoing no matter what she did. Some people liked it, some didn't, but she didn't really care either way. She stuck by me, and introduced me to Jake, who was in her math class - through Jake, I met Marco, Rachel, and Cassie. Back then, Rachel was kind of indifferent to Sarah, but Sarah and Cassie were instant friends, as most people are with either Cassie or Sarah.

And then…

That night, in the construction yard, where we met Elfangor and received the morphing power. We had hid, hearing and seeing the last moments of Elfangor's life - that was the first time I had ever seen Sarah cry. She was angry, frustrated, but I knew watching him die effected her. And then…

_"Something is wrong… this is not right." Her voice was a thin whisper in my ear as she gripped my elbow. "We are…"_

"Of course this isn't right!" said Marco, who was just to my other side. "He's dying and now we've got to save the world - there's nothing_ right about this."_

"No," protested Sarah quietly. "No… things had changed. This was not the way it was supposed to be… things have changed…"

"What's changed?" I whispered. She looked at me and over the tears, over the anger, I saw fear in her eyes.

"We need to run," she told me. "We need to move. We need to get out of here. This is…" _Her head snapped up suddenly and her grip on my arm tightened. "Run - **now!**" What she had seen or heard was beyond me at that point, only the fact that I was up and running before I had realized I was up at all. Not a moment after we had started running, something had burst onto our spot with a roar - a Hork-Bajir, I would learn later, but at that point, it just seemed to be something out of a nightmare._

"What the hell is that?!" yelled Marco, only to remain unanswered.

"Separate!" Sarah hollered. "Do not stay together! That thing could kill us all in one stroke!" No one asked any questions of her that night - or ever, for that matter. We were all too scared… that any of us even remember that night is amazing…

"Here!" Sarah, despite her orders to separate, had not released her hold on my arm. She yanked me into a dark corner, where we could see the whole lot, but where very few could see us. Kitty corner to us, crouched inside a large cement cylinder was Jake. He saw us and gave a faint nod - behind him, barely visible, was Cassie. Rachel and Marco were nowhere in sight, but they couldn't be far away…

"Sarah," I whispered. "What's changed?" She looked back at me and only shook her head, then pressed her finger to her lips. No talking… why?

We couldn't have been in that hiding spot more then two minutes before Sarah was just suddenly… gone. I hadn't seen her leave, but one moment she was there and the next she wasn't. I peered out around the corner of the wall and saw the crumbling wall that could have been us - the stalking monsters, twenty, at least and… Visser Three.

Visser 16, report to me immediately. A human I hadn't noticed before emerged from Visser Three's shadow. He scared me instantly - the cold look in his green eyes, the maniacal smirk on his face… He was… creepy. Frightening. Evil.

"The Andalite's life force has been… ended, as you very well know," answered the human. The way he sounded, he wasn't any older then I was… "But there is something else - there is someone among the humans who saw running… someone I feel the need to interrogate. Therefore, I must ask something of you - tell your goon squad to capture them all. I will know the one I seek when I see them - then, your people may kill the rest."

Kill… 

Oh god…

This one you seek - are they valuable to the Yeerk Empire?

"Very much so, your Vissership," said the human, smiling. "They will be an asset to the cause." Who? Who were they talking about? Which one of us…? Rachel, Jake, Marco, Cassie, myself… Sarah. They wanted Sarah. I knew that instantly - I didn't know why, but they did and she was gone… what if she had been captured already? Captured, while I hid like a coward in the dark corner. I had to… had to do something, at least try to save her…

The spaceship that had been so quietly sitting on the ground quite suddenly gave a low rumble, like an explosion rocked the inside. Then, without warning, it exploded like a solar flare, flooding the construction sight with brilliant light - since I had been staring directly at it, the light corrupted my vision and I had to look away to save myself from more pain. I heard several guttural screams and cries that ended abruptly, then a human scream and a yell inside my head. My vision came back fast enough, but it was dotted with spots when I looked back around the corner to see what I had missed - all of the monsters were dead. Slaughtered, laying in pools of blood and body parts, and, what looked like an Andalite tail randomly mixed into the carnage. What… what had killed them? What could move so fast… twenty, in less then a minute. Twenty bladed monsters of death - dead, completely destroyed.

"RARRR!!!" Correction, nineteen dead in less then a minute - the twentieth had escaped damage and was running at me faster then I had expected something so big to move. Then, it stumbled, eyes wide, letting loose a gurgle of pain as it fell. A sword, of all things, stuck out of the back side of its neck, making the scene look like a half-finished executioner's job. What I had taken for a shadow on its back rose and took a human shape - a human with striking blue eyes and a long braid.

"No one saw that," whispered Sarah grimly. "No one but you, Tobi'as. The light blinded them for a longer time…"

"You… you did this?" I asked, unbelieving. Sarah, my friend… less then a minute… twenty walking, bladed monsters… dead, destroyed… Sarah? "What…"

"What am I?" she asked softly. "I am the same person I was an hour ago… you just know more about me now." The fact she could managed such a coy answer amazed out of my shocked state and I relaxed a little - very little- as she yanked the sword out of the monster. "Tobi'as, this is not how things were supposed to go. Visser Sixteen was not supposed to be here."

"Sarah, how-" She suddenly hugged me, tightly, dropping the sword to wrap her arms around me and bury her face in my shoulder.

"I almost lost you," she whispered, fear a desperate sound in her voice. "Ia…_ I was afraid…" How anyone could go from so serious to so… vulnerable… only Sarah can do it. The darkness that takes over her when she fights… it isn't really who she is. No one understands that but me. I know more about her then anyone else and… I had been afraid too, that night, afraid that I had lost the only family I had ever had…_

"We all were," I told her softly, wrapping my arms around her. "I thought…"

"While this Kodak moment is cute and all, shouldn't we get ourselves out of here and someplace safe?" The sarcastic question was Marco's and Sarah pulled back from me to regard him coolly. 

"No place is safe now," she said flatly. "You heard Elfangor - they, these Yeerks, could be anyone, anywhere. No one must know of what happened here - before morning, this will be cleaned up and nothing will have happened. We are alone… all there is, all the hope this planet has, is us."

"Elfangor said the Andalites…" Rachel trailed off uncertainly, hindered by the cool look in Sarah's eyes.

"We cannot rely on beings that have not already arrived in force," she said firmly. "We have ourselves and we damn well begin to rely on that - We. Have. No. Choice."

No choice…

Tobias, whoohoo, Marco to Tobias, come in, Tobias… Hey! Bird! Wake up!! Alay says she's picked up Sarah's trail from the school. I returned to reality from my memories and realized Marco and I were sitting in the tree-line outside of the school. With the night vision of an owl, I could make out a shadowy form coming toward us, but it moved quickly, frighteningly quickly.

_There was a wallet in the bushes,_ said Alay, slipping into the shadow of the tree I was seated in. She blended into it so easily, even with her hair… then I realized that she had pulled it back, hiding all of the blonde under a layer of dark brown. _With Sarah's _Aen Haihi_… that means she either left us a clue or… they did. Because Sarah wouldn't be without that necklace unless under dire circumstances._

Whose wallet is it? I asked. Someone from school?

_I think so - the only ID in here is marked with the name of your school. If I'm not mistaken, this chic's in the same grade. _She held up the wallet, which had the ID displayed on the front and I heard Marco give a sound of mental disgust.

I know that one, he said. She hangs around with some guys… uh…. Raynen and Kayden… brothers, I think, twins, and she's some kind of cousin… or sibling. They're all very high and mighty on themselves. Egomaniacs, more so then me.

__

Raynen and Kayden… I know those names, but not from around here. Those almost sound Teslahani… Reinae, the Goddess of Hearth and Kaiden, the God of the Forests…

Teslahani…? I asked. It's gotta be a coincidence. No way there could be Teslahani here… not from your world at least.

_Not entirely true, but… they wouldn't be first generation Teslahani, at least._

… huh? Marco and I both had the same confused tone in our thought speak and, in the dark, I saw Alay roll her eyes.

_Look, it's a long shot but… a century ago, in our world, Casters were still using Translates - portals made of Caster Elements that could take people across leagues of distances. Something happened that the Gates became… corrupted. They began to transport people to places far, far away from their destination, sometimes into dangerous situations. Three Casters and their four students all drowned when their Gate left them at the bottom of a lake, for example. But the last time anyone used a Gate, the group never reappeared _anywhere_. It was a Translate that got _us_ here so…_

__So you think that the people that disappeared came here, I said. Which isn't an impossibility, but a long shot nonetheless. 

Alay… Marco sounded uncertain and his morph reflected it by shifting on the branch. Is it possible that… they could have gone on teaching people here to Cast? Alay arched an eyebrow, but nodded slowly.

_Yes, Marco, it's completely possible,_ she said. _Especially since we know that there is Casting potential in your people. I take it, then, that Sarah sensed someone Cast today._

At school, he affirmed. The teacher and someone else, she thought. It's possible one of them over heard us and, on top of that, Anya, the girl, is probably a Weapon or, a very athletic and agile Caster.

_Casters and Weapons, they're never apart,_ said Alay, shrugging. _And this all makes more sense then it doesn't. A bad awakening wouldn't go unnoticed, I don't think, especially not if there was someone around who didn't know what it was..._

She said that, he told us. And then explained it - she got thrown into a barn? I knew that story, the reason behind the majority of her scars. Emily had tossed her into a barn - Emily's _seharai raisha_ had, at least. Then it had proceeded to toss her back out of the barn, through a barn window this time - after that, her father and a Caster managed to subdue her.

_Yeah,_ answered Alay. _But that was a while ago. Usually, she avoids the subject all together._

Can we talk about this later? I asked. I'd like to get Sarah back sometime soon. I was worried now - Yeerks, Sarah could handle. She wasn't afraid of Yeerks but… deep down, Casters scared her. No matter what anyone told her, she would be afraid, even if she _did_ have the Casting in her - all because she had seen the true force of Casting and the true anger it could cause…

_I agree._ Alay slipped the wallet into the tree and tossed her ponytail over her shoulder. _Let's go get her back so I can kill her for getting kidnapped._


	7. Old World Style

_

The Animorphs Alternate Universe Series  


_The Faith  
**Chapter 6 - Old World  
**_(Sarah)  
_   
"_Jai…_ you have not seen him? _Kethe… _thank you. Please tell him I called. Thank you." I hung up the phone gently. I still was not happy with Marco… but, he was the only one whose phone number I knew that I could call and explain a situation like this. Four Gods forbid I call Jake or Rachel and I did not know Cassie's number off the top of my head - but Marco was not home. The meeting had gone possibly longer then they had planned it to… that was the best excuse I could come up with.   
"Your friends will be worried about you?" I settled into a chair across the table from the Caster and nodded - this man was different and had the air of a Healer about him, as opposed to his sons, who simply possessed egos. He looked like he was about the age of my foster father, with very little gray in his brown hair, but a tired look in his blue eyes. "As they should be - my sons acted rashly and for that, I apologize. Has the Sleep Cast worn off?" I gave another nod and he smiled. "That's good. But, it is to be expected. The old World Weapons were stronger then ones we have here - mostly because of the Head Caster's role in the ceremony." He sipped his tea while I attempted to understand what he had said - Old World?   
"What do you mean?" I asked him, accepting a cup of tea from him. I had no intention of drinking it, of course, but it would have been rude to do not so. "Old World?" He nodded.   
"No doubt the Academy is still around - it's a tough system to break, is it not? And, since you are a Weapon, then you know some of Academy lore - like the Transgates." He sipped his tea again as I thought on that. Transgate lore? From how long ago? There were many stories involving Transgates, most of them coming from when the Gates started to… warp.   
"I have no idea what you are talking about," I said truthfully. "There is no Academy in New York nor-"   
"But you don't _come _from New York," interrupted the Caster flatly, setting his teacup down. "There are no Teslahni descendents in New York. Not only that, your Weapon mark is on a different arm then that which we mark our people. We usually do it on the other arm." The kitchen filled with a disturbing silence as I tried to figure out something to tell him. My mind struggled and finally gave up.   
"_Kithe_," I muttered. "All right, what do you want?" I asked, making my voice as impassive as I could. "I will not tell certain things, but I will tell you as much as I can, I promise you that." He gave a small nod, then chuckled.   
"You're very much a Weapon, child," he told me. "And I only want news of the old World, nothing more. Well, that, and an explanation of how _you_ got here."   
"_Jaia_, _that_ I will not tell you," I informed him. "But I will tell you of the Old World. Then, possibly, you can tell me just exactly what you have been doing here for the past century." He nodded again as the kitchen door opened.   
"Daniel, Kayden called me and told me you had… oh, hello." The man stopped in the door- I was already half out of my chair, my hand raised to grab a short sword that was not on my shoulder in reality, but was present to my Weapon's instinct. "You must be the one Kayden was telling me about - the Weapon from New York." I wanted to relax, or at least feign relaxation, but there was something about the way this man looked... - he was strikingly familiar and it was disquieting.   
"Sarah, sit," said Daniel sharply, in the commanding tone only a Caster can manage. I sat, without thinking, because I was completely used to subconsciously following orders from Casters. "Good. Steve, come in. My son, even though he can't keep his mouth shut, has done me a favor. You're a Weapon - if she goes off into a Weapon lingo ramble, you can translate." The new man, Steve, laughed, as if there was some kind of joke involving Weapon "lingo" - whatever "lingo" meant.   
"All right, all right, I'll stay. But you'll have to explain to me why Kayden told me she was Teslahni - she doesn't _look_ Teslahni." That set off something inside of me and I jumped up with a strange anger burning in my blood. I _was_ Teslahni, damn it, I was.   
_"Iades Teslahni,_" I told him harshly. "Do not think otherwise." He seemed a little taken aback at my anger and, truthfully, I was surprised too. Then again, I had not had to defend my ethnicity before - not that I remembered, anyway. And I was proud of being Teslahni and no one could ever mistake me for anything else.   
"Well, then," said Daniel calmly. "Steve, sit, join us, have some tea, and we'll talk. I've made quite an interesting discovery about this one."   
"Oh?" Steve grabbed an empty kitchen table chair and pulled it up next to the Caster - _jaia, his_ Caster. I sat back down, finally able to feign relaxation, at least. Now it simply irritated me that I could not place this Weapon's face.   
"She's from the old World." Leave it to a Caster not to dance around the subject.   
"The… Old World? Daniel, how in the _hell_ did you reach that conclusion?" And leave it to a Weapon to back-talk a Caster.   
"Because I _am_ from the old World?" I suggested, almost a little too coyly. These people were, no doubt, good people, albeit possible Controllers, but regardless of the state of their minds, I would need to know how much of my true self I could reveal. You cannot hide anything from a Weapon and Caster team, but, as a Weapon, I needed to test how easily they were able to deduce a person's personality.   
Steve was silent a moment, then rubbed his forehead with a sigh.   
"We thought this day might come, but… now?" Daniel shrugged.   
"If my hunch is right, she wasn't sent here," he said to his partner. "But it was accidental, like before." He looked to me and I nodded. "So then, for the time being, she's stuck too."   
"If I may ask a question?" From arrogance to politeness and not a change in their faces. _Kithe_. "If the Transgate accident involving your descendents was one hundred years ago, why do _you_ consider the other place home? Is this not your home now?" Daniel took a sip of his tea and looked to Steve, who was looking at him. Finally, Daniel sighed.   
"Sarah, this _is_ our home now, don't get me wrong, but… there are a lot of things about Casting that we don't know and not knowing them could be dangerous. There have been a lot of bad awakenings lately and there are a lot of powerful Caster trainees under us, but… eventually, the secret _will _get out and everyone who isn't afraid will want to _be_ a Caster - or a Weapon, don't give me that look, . We'll test everyone we can but, if the ratio rate is like it was one hundred years back ho- back in the Old World, we won't be able to teach them all. We _need_ to find a way to use Gates to get back and forth between this world and that. The Academy can handle our extra students - we hope, at least, it can."   
"No one in the home world has not used Transgates since the Gate incident that brought your descendents here." I sat back in my chair and rested the teacup onto my lap. "To be honest, the Transgate that brought us here was a total accident - my sister and _mi itala_ were having a practice Caster duel when their elements crossed - from what I have been told, one was using earth and water and the other was using fire and air. But I… I have not been in contact with them. We were separated when we arrived here." Casters, Weapons, and my home I could discuss - the Yeerks I would not. I _could_ not.   
"Another dead end," sighed Steve. Daniel arched an eyebrow and cleared his throat. "All right, not completely. We do have a new Weapon, sort of… kind of. Hopefully." He looked at me and I had the distinct urge to laugh. He has such a boyish optimism - it was amusing.  
And familiar...   
"Sort of," I said, nodding. "I have other things that I am needed for, but, in the mean time, I can assist you." Steve grinned.   
"Good to know. Welcome aboard, Sarah Tylyr."   
"Haelien forbid you _ever_ learn the proper way to address a Teslahni," said Daniel, standing. "_Tylyr matalan Sarah_,_ nades kelant mi reinan._" I smiled - no one had said that to me in a long time.   
"_Veraha,_" I said to him, standing. "And thank you to you as well, Weapon Steve."   
"No need to thank me, trust me," he said. "Now, Daniel, while you go have a nice talk with your three about kidnapping people, I'll take Miss Sarah on a tour of our facilities down below."   
""Talk" is an inadequate word, . I'm gonna rip those children a new one." He smiled at me as Steve laughed, than left the kitchen with doom preceding him - not that I felt sympathy for the three idiots. Whatever they got, they most certainly deserved.  


* * *


	8. Shocked into Stupidity

_

The Animorphs Alternate-Universe Series  


_The Faith  
**Chapter 8 - Letting Out the Cat  
**_(Sarah)  
  
"Iades Aen matalan halen." _The forest was quiet, except for the sound of Jake's footsteps and mine._ "Mi italan des Aen matalan shalen."_ Silence has always been something that bothers me. If silence was what the Four Gods had wanted, as someone once told me they did, they would not have given us voices. "_Wides lalthai Muraien reisha."_ Nor songs nor noise in general. "_Mi italan da ia."_ A squirrel leapt through the branches over head, then stopped and tittered at us as we walked by his tree. "_Veranda, lina iai,_" I said to it as we walked by.  
"You're in a remarkably good mood for someone who just walked into a pole." I made a face at Jake, making him chuckle. "That was the first time I've ever seen a Weapon walk into something-"_Thump._ Forests are good places for trees, something Jake, in all his undertone gloating, had forgotten. And, of course, one had just sprung up in his way to "bite him in the ass", as Marco put it later. Jake landed on his butt and caught himself before he fell over. I turned around on my heel and took a minute to debate laughing at him or helping him up, then laughing at him.  
"Ow…"  
"Very nice job, Jake," I said coyly as I knelt down. "I think you hurt the tree." He rubbed the middle of his forehead and winced.  
"Okay, okay, I'll stop gloating," he said. "I deserved that in the worst way." He dropped his head onto his knees. "Ow."  
"Let me see." He lifted his head again and I tipped his chin up to look at what he had done - a nice surface scrap, very little bleeding, and the beginning of a bump. "Not bad. If poles were as rough as trees, I would have done very much the same." I gripped the cuff of my sleeve in my teeth and pulled until it ripped. The piece that came off went to clean up the little blood Jake had lost and the dirt and other things that had made their home in his wound.   
"Why did you walk into the pole when you saw me?" I folded the scrap in half and sat back on my heels.  
"What makes you think it was seeing you that made me walk into the pole?" He touched his forehead and winced, then sighed.  
"I think we need to call another meeting." A Weapon's ability to completely blow off questions. He _was_ good.  
"Why do you say that?" I asked him. "It is not like this is big news. Well, given, Tobias and Marco can Cast, Alay's a Weapon, and everyone but you and Rachel knew this." I stood up and silently asked for help from the fire _seharai nendei._ The scrap of cloth smoked, then smoldered, then burst into a dozen little flames that quickly combined into one. I let it burn everything but the corner I held, then dropped the corner as it burned. Ashes landed on the pine needled covered ground and were blown away by a natural breeze. I never had trouble with fire. It came when I asked for it and lingered even after I was done. It was my element, the basis of my _seharai raisha_, and was the easiest of the four elements for me to control.   
"I can Cast as well," I said flatly, to Jake's confused face. My head was beginning to throb. All this excitement and the day was not over yet… "And I agree, we do need to call a meeting. There is much more that needs to be discussed, beyond this Weapon/Caster… thing." I waved my hand when the word I wanted failed to come to mind. "Come on. Let us find the others."  
"Too late, we found ya' first." Alay landed on the ground, and leaned casually against the tree she had been perched in. "So… care to explain?" she asked coolly.   
"That depends," I answered, pulling Jake to his feet. "How much did you hear?" She shrugged and stood easily, stretching her arms over her head as she did.  
"Enough," she said, flexing her fingers and rolling her wrists. "And too little." Her arm suddenly twitched and, unless you were watching for it, it was completely possible to miss the flash of silver that shot through the air. Jake, true to form, ducked to the side, and there was a dull thud as the knife hit the tree that was one the other side of the clearing. Alay smirked, Jake frowned, and I simply shook my head.  
"_Nades verde?_" I asked, walking to the tree. "He is a Weapon, you proved it."  
"He's a _trainee_," she said flatly, as I yanked the dagger free. Alay's secret was her skill with throwing knives - deadly accuracy combined with a weapon that was virtually silent to the normal human ear. A thief's weapon - small, easy to hide, hard to detect - combined with a Weapon's skill - stealth, grace, speed, above normal eye sight and hearing. "He had better not forget it." Jake said nothing, but it was clear on his face that he was not amused by Alay's show of authority. Jake was our leader in the Animorphs, but he was an inferior level to Alay and myself. And Alay was quite… happy about that.  
"For the time being," I interjected calmly. "It does not matter at the moment. We have a slightly bigger problem, a problem that goes beyond this. Now we have a risk of more then just Sadie and Emily - more Casters could be Controllers.""There's also the fact that Marco's sending out signals to every bloody _seharai raisha_ in the immediate area," said Alay. "The _nendei_ are attracted to him like flies to sugar and to hell if I know why. It's not just his water element either - _everything_ is and my biggest worry there is fire elementals - he'd be toasted in no time flat." This caused a chill of fear down my spine and I made a mental promise never to Cast fire around Marco. Fire was capable of only destruction…  
"We need to call another meeting," said Jake. "Later on today. It's too early in the morning now. Alay, do you know where Marco and Tobias are?" She gave a short nod and accepted the dagger when I offered it to her.  
"I sent them on their way, since we knew Sarah was safe, but Tobias wants to talk to her tomorrow and Marco will probably hunt her down in school," she said, then pointed to Jake. "You, take Sarah home, but not to her house, back to yours. It would be easier to say she slept over somewhere and to just have her stay with you for tonight - I'll run in and grab something for you to wear to school."  
"School," I repeated with a groan. "_Kithe_. How many hours until I have to go back there?" I looked to Jake, who shrugged, and Alay, who also shrugged.  
"No watch," she said, pointing at her wrist. "Just assume something like four or five. Nothing worse than back home, _jaia_?" She laughed as I made a face at her.  
"Back home, we _chose_ to get four or five hours of sleep," I said irately. "Here, I am kidnapped, harassed by an evil dog, interrogated, shocked, and dragged around half the country side. That was _not_ voluntary, in case you had not caught that point." Jake started laughing too, while I got to stand there and wonder just what in the five hells was so funny.  



	9. Letting Out the Cat

__

The Animorphs Alternate-Universe Series

The Faith

****

Chapter 8 - Letting Out the Cat

__

(Sarah)

"Iades Aen matalan halen." The forest was quiet, except for the sound of Jake's footsteps and mine._ "Mi italan des Aen matalan shalen."_ Silence has always been something that bothers me. If silence was what the Four Gods had wanted, as someone once told me they did, they would not have given us voices. "_Wides lalthai Muraien reisha."_ Nor songs nor noise in general. "_Mi italan da ia."_ A squirrel leapt through the branches over head, then stopped and tittered at us as we walked by his tree. "_Veranda, lina iai,_" I said to it as we walked by.

"You're in a remarkably good mood for someone who just walked into a pole." I made a face at Jake, making him chuckle. "That was the first time I've ever seen a Weapon walk into something-"

_Thump._ Forests are good places for trees, something Jake, in all his undertone gloating, had forgotten. And, of course, one had just sprung up in his way to "bite him in the ass", as Marco put it later. Jake landed on his butt and caught himself before he fell over. I turned around on my heel and took a minute to debate laughing at him or helping him up, then laughing at him.

"Ow…"

"Very nice job, Jake," I said coyly as I knelt down. "I think you hurt the tree." He rubbed the middle of his forehead and winced.

"Okay, okay, I'll stop gloating," he said. "I deserved that in the worst way." He dropped his head onto his knees. "Ow."

"Let me see." He lifted his head again and I tipped his chin up to look at what he had done - a nice surface scrap, very little bleeding, and the beginning of a bump. "Not bad. If poles were as rough as trees, I would have done very much the same." I gripped the cuff of my sleeve in my teeth and pulled until it ripped. The piece that came off went to clean up the little blood Jake had lost and the dirt and other things that had made their home in his wound. 

"Why did you walk into the pole when you saw me?" I folded the scrap in half and sat back on my heels.

"What makes you think it was seeing you that made me walk into the pole?" He touched his forehead and winced, then sighed.

"I think we need to call another meeting." A Weapon's ability to completely blow off questions. He _was_ good.

"Why do you say that?" I asked him. "It is not like this is big news. Well, given, Tobias and Marco can Cast, Alay's a Weapon, and everyone but you and Rachel knew this." I stood up and silently asked for help from the fire _seharai nendei._ The scrap of cloth smoked, then smoldered, then burst into a dozen little flames. I let it burn everything but the corner I held, then dropped the corner as it burned. Ashes landed on the pine needled covered ground and were blown away by a natural breeze. I never had trouble with fire. It came when I asked for it and lingered even after I was done. It was my element, the basis of my _seharai raisha_, and was the easiest of the four elements for me to control. 

"I can Cast as well," I said flatly, to Jake's confused face. My head was beginning to throb. All this excitement and the day was not over yet… "And I agree, we do need to call a meeting. There is much more that needs to be discussed, beyond this Weapon/Caster… thing." I waved my hand when the word I wanted failed to come to mind. "Come on. Let us find the others."

"Too late, we found ya' first." Alay landed on the ground, and leaned casually against the tree she had been perched in. "So… care to explain?" she asked coolly. 

"That depends," I answered, pulling Jake to his feet. "How much did you hear?" She shrugged and stood easily, stretching her arms over her head as she did.

"Enough," she said, flexing her fingers and rolling her wrists. "And too little." Her arm suddenly twitched and, unless you were watching for it, it was completely possible to miss the flash of silver that shot through the air. Jake, true to form, ducked to the side, and there was a dull thud as the knife hit the tree that was one the other side of the clearing. Alay smirked, Jake frowned, and I simply shook my head.

"_Nades verde?_" I asked, walking to the tree. "He is a Weapon, you proved it."

"He's a _trainee_," she said flatly, as I yanked the dagger free. Alay's secret was her skill with throwing knives - deadly accuracy combined with a weapon that was virtually silent to the normal human ear. A thief's weapon - small, easy to hide, hard to detect - combined with a Weapon's skill - stealth, grace, speed, above normal eye sight and hearing. "He had better not forget it." Jake said nothing, but it was clear on his face that he was not amused by Alay's show of authority. Jake was our leader in the Animorphs, but he was an inferior level to Alay and myself. And Alay was quite… happy about that.

"For the time being," I interjected calmly. "It does not matter at the moment. We have a slightly bigger problem, a problem that goes beyond this. Now we have a risk of more then just Sadie and Emily - more Casters could be Controllers."

"There's also the fact that Marco's sending out signals to every bloody _seharai raisha_ in the immediate area," said Alay. "The _nendei_ are attracted to him like flies to sugar and to hell if I know why. It's not just his water element either - _everything_ is and my biggest worry there is fire elementals - he'd be toasted in no time flat." This caused a chill of fear down my spine and I made a mental promise never to Cast fire around Marco. Fire was capable of only destruction…

"We need to call another meeting," said Jake. "Later on today. It's too early in the morning now. Alay, do you know where Marco and Tobias are?" She gave a short nod and accepted the dagger when I offered it to her.

"I sent them on their way, since we knew Sarah was safe, but Tobias wants to talk to her tomorrow and Marco will probably hunt her down in school," she said, then pointed to me. "You, take Sarah home, but not to her house, back to yours. It would be easier to say she slept over somewhere and to just have her stay with you for tonight - I'll run in and grab something for you to wear to school."

"School," I repeated with a groan. "_Kithe_. How many hours until I have to go back there?" I looked to Jake, who shrugged, and Alay, who also shrugged.

"No watch," she said, pointing at her wrist. "Just assume something like four or five. Nothing worse than back home, _jaia_?" She laughed as I made a face at her.

"Back home, we _chose_ to get four or five hours of sleep," I said irately. "Here, I am kidnapped, harassed by an evil dog, interrogated, shocked into stupidity, and dragged around half the country side. That was _not_ voluntary, in case you had not caught that point." Jake laughed too, while I got to stand there and wonder just what in the five hells was so funny.


	10. One Long Day

_

The Animorphs Alternate-Universe Series

_ The Faith **Chapter 9 - One Long Day** _(Jake)_   
Sarah tightened her ponytail as she sat at the table across from me. She had showered and dressed in the clothes that was mysteriously appeared by the couch over night and looked ready to face the day running off of three hours of sleep and two cups of really strong tea Caster Daniel had delivered "coincidentally" first thing in the morning - Caster Daniel, who avoided getting up before noon at all costs, had suddenly had an urge to be up at dawn, making tea. Yeah, an urge named Alay.   
My name is Jake. Most superheroes lead double lives - one normal, one saving the world. I lead three - one more or less normal, one saving the world, and one training to protect it. Of my family, only my mom and dad know that I'm a Weapon Trainee - Tom doesn't know, Rachel doesn't know, and neither do her sisters or my aunt. Rachel's dad is a Weapon, or at least was, until he moved. Rachel was a good Weapon Trainee candidate, but she was so focused on gymnastics that her dad didn't want to take her from it. Now she's got other things to deal with and hasn't really talked to her dad in a few months. That's one of the biggest rules with Weapons and Casters - the _parents_ have to instigate it for the children and make sure the children know absolutely everything about what they're getting into. On the flip-side, when you tell an eleven-year-old that you want to start training them to be a superhero, you aren't going to get much resistance. 

"This is going to be a very interesting day," commented Sarah idly, as she tied her shoe. I nodded as my mom set a cup of Caster Daniel's tea in front of me.

"I know you don't like more things that come from Dan, but drink it," she said firmly. I gave a quick nod and didn't argue. You just don't argue with that tone. It's the 'I'm-the-mother-dang-it' tone, the scary one.

"Thank you for letting me stay on such short notice," said Sarah. "I have not exactly told my foster family about my reason for coming and to arrive home at such an hour in the morning would have caused questions." Something about her statement nagged at my mind, but to hell if I had enough useable brain at that moment to figure out what it was. I focused on my tea as Sarah tied her other shoe and downed a third cup of Daniel's tea. "Let us hope Healer Caster Daniel's tea can keep me awake through History - how can your teachers be so boring?"

"Because they aren't wielding a blunt object," I explained. "Trust me, I figured that a while ago. Weapon Teachers make lessons interesting by threatening your life - regular academic teachers don't have that privilege." She grinned and giggled.

"Makes sense," she said, standing. I gulped down the last of leafy tasting tea and followed her to the front door. Her backpack was next to mine, sitting in the entry way of my house, with a strange silver necklace resting in top. Sarah scooped it up and gave it a once over because knotting the broken chain around her neck. The silver pendentant fell to rest just above the collar of her black shirt and was a contrast to her entire black outfit - it wasn't exactly hard to tell what Alay's favorite color was, now was it?

"Hey, Jake, can I talk to you for a second?" Both of us straightened and Sarah's guard went up even as I had to struggle to put up mine. It was still hard to imagine my brother as the enemy… 

"Sure, Tom," I answered, putting on my best little brother front. Tom opened his mouth to say something, then paused to look Sarah over.

"I don't think we've met." Sarah shook her head and offered her hand to shake.

"My name is Sarah," she told him. "I am in Jake's class at school." My brother shook her hand, even as she stiffened slightly.

"I'm Tom, Jake's brother - obviously, since I'm standing in his living room in my pajamas." Sarah laughed, making my brother - and me - smile. She had a nice laugh and she seemed completely relaxed when she laughed. 

"That would explain it," she said, nodding and grinning. "Jake, I will wait outside, _jaia_? So you and your brother may talk?"

"No, no, that's all right," insisted Tom. "I was just going to ask him to come to Friday night's meeting of The Sharing - some of the teacher-coordinators are throwing a Welcome Back to School party and we're going to discuss the overall plane for the upcoming year. You should come too, Sarah. We have a _lot_ of fun." Sarah's eyes didn't cloud over, didn't darken, just remained the same cool blue as she gave a toss of her ponytail. She had the Weapon mask down to a science and nothing could break it. 

"I have heard of The Sharing," she said calmly. "Many, many good things, in fact, but I have been so busy learning everything I can to fit in around here that I have not had time to make a meeting." It's easy to lie to a Yeerk, even easier when lying is a part of your training. Tom bought her story, hook, line, and sinker, and nodded sympathetically.

"Well, if you're not busy Friday night, come on over and check it out. Maybe you could bring this idiot along as well." He gave me a good natured slug on the arm, which I returned, keeping in check the fact that I was probably twice as strong as he was. Living multiple lives can be a real pain in the butt because you're always making sure one secret doesn't reveal another and so on.

"He can come, so long as he does not assume it is a date," teased Sarah, making a face. I swear, she really picked up on Marco's sense of cruel humor as she picked up on his English (or lack of) skills.

"I wouldn't date you if you were the last girl on Earth," I shot back defensively. Sarah has this natural ability to make you want to… I don't know, fight back. It's just the way she is. 

"Ah, don't listen to him," said Tom. "He's still in the "girls have cooties" stage, aren't ya, bro?" He laughed and Sarah laughed too, but I knew - I _knew _I was going to have explain "cooties" to her on the way to the bus.

We finally left the house fifteen minutes later, having talked to Tom some more, then been interuppted by my dad, on the phone, saying that Daniel wanted us both after school, immediately, at his house. Of course he did. We had just discovered another Weapon and I also figured that there would be some profuse apologies to be had, mostly by Daniel's kids. Don't get me wrong, I like Kayden, Reinaen, and Anya well enough well, but, collectively, they have the common sense of stoned mule. Don't ask me what a stoned mule is - it's a Marco phrase. And my sort-of cousins have done more stupid things to date then I can count, all of them with at least two of them in on the act. Daniel has done a great job raising them by himself, but, at the same time, they're all trouble. Sometimes, I think Aunt Jo had the right idea when she packed up and left…

"I feel like going home." Sarah paused to yawn as we passed under a large willow tree. "My head is a great deal of pain right now and I just feel…. tired."

"Exhaustion will do that to you," I said, shrugging. "But today is no where near over. We still need to call an unplanned meeting for this afternoon." I feared that meeting, the meeting where more things would be added onto our already full plates. But, more then that, I feared Rachel's wrath when she found out I knew such a great (and, to her, probably wonderful) thing and hadn't told her yet, especially since her dad was involved.

Oh, yay, a _meeting_. Sounds fun. Sarah started walking again and tossed her ponytail over her shoulder. I am _not_ being childish, protested Tobias. You scared the hell out of me last night!

_Good morning, Tobias_, I said calmly. _Lay off her a little, okay? She isn't feeling well._

Jake, for all I care, she could be the walking wounded. She _knew_ all she had to do was call out in human-to-morph thought speak and, most likely, someone would have been around! She stopped, glared into a small clump of decorative trees and started walking again. No, what you _need_ is a kick in the ass! I stifled a laugh - this was actually very amusing, listening to Tobias lay into Sarah. I had never heard Tobias get really angry at someone, but he was _pissed_ at Sarah. All right, look, _yes_, I knew. You tend to notice things when all you have to do during the is fly around and do surveillence. I knew there were people like Weapons and Casters, and etc, but I didn't say anything to you because this _is_ you we're talking about - you would have rushed blindly into their ranks and instantly given them free range to join in with us, regardless of whether we knew they were free or not.

"_Nerai,na lina reca!"_ hollered Sarah loudly, before I could grab her arm. She glared at me, but what ever she had been ready to yell outloud was instead yelled at him silently. I frowned as she relaxed slightly, but still glowered furisously - was I imagining it or was her skin slightly flushed? She certainly felt warm, but then, I didn't grab most girls, or people in general for that matter.

_Tobias, let it go. We've all learned some- wait a minute._ Realization dawns at strange times. _You knew_?

I did, Jake, and I should have said something, at least, to you, but I wasn't sure how to go about it. I felt stupid telling you I had been spying on your parents, and then, on Caster Daniel and his brood. But I wanted to make sure that no one had any clue about our other doings…

"That, and you were bored," muttered Sarah hotly. "_Aenkith-shena-reca-ratia…"_

I'm not even going to dignify that with a response, answered Tobias with an undertone of anger. I knew enough Teslahani to know what she had called him revolved around 'gods damned', 'bird', and several words I won't translate. She was not amused by Tobias and I can't say I was either - he had been sneaking around, spying on my family, spying on _me_. I felt… distrusted. Lied to, on top of that, and it wasn't a nice feeling. 

"_Na nera mura, hitai na marph mura,_" murmured Sarah. "'You listen to shadow, and you will become shadow'."

"What?" I asked, confused.

"Dig yourself in too deep and it's gonna bite ya' in the ass." I had only barely sensed Alay's presence before she was right in between me and Sarah, keeping pace as if she had been walking with us the whole time. "Good morning, _itala_, Trainee. I trust you both slept well, because today's gonna be one helluva day." She grinned cheerfully at me and I wondered, briefly, at what point in time my life had taken such a turn. And what I had done to deserve it.


	11. Interlude in the wake of Missing Chapter...

  
itala - heart sister   
itelan - twin sister   
italan - sister of blood that is not a twin   
itale - sister through bond (ie step sister, sister-in-law, or adopted sister)   
atala - heart brother   
atelan - twin brother   
atalan - brother of blood that is not a twin   
atale - brother through bond, see itale   
matala – heart daughter   
matalan – blood daughter   
matale – adopted daughter, also daughter through bond, ie stepdaughter   
matele – granddaughter   
cetala - heart son   
cetalan - blood son   
cetale - adopted son - also, son through bond, ie stepson   
cetele - grandson   
jetala – heart father   
jetalan – blood father   
jetale – father through a bond - adopted/step   
jetele – grandfather   
jetya - informal use of father, ie Dad, Papa, etc   
jeteya - informal use of grandfather, ie Poppi, Grandpa, etc   
natala – heart mother, surrogate   
natalan – blood mother   
natale – mother through a bond - adopted/step   
natele – grandmother   
nanya - informal use of mother, ie Mom, Momma, etc   
nanaya - informal use of grandmother, ie Nana, Grandma, etc   
kitalan – blood aunt   
kitale – aunt through adoption - also used for female teachers   
kitela – aunt through marriage   
yitalan - blood uncle   
yitale - uncle through adoption - also used for male teachers   
yitela - uncle through marriage   
entalan – blood cousin   
entale – cousin through adoption   
entela – cousin through marriage   
hitala – close friend, not quite heart friend 


	12. Uh exactly

****

Interlude

~*~

__

In Which the Author Make Explanations

and... uh, Stuff.

Yeah, okay, so really, Chapter 11 isn't completed. Somewhere along the lines, I kind of, uh, well, didn't finish it and went on with the story. So, yes, Book 2 is finished and on my computer, but Chapter 11 has yet to reach the same level of completion. Hells, I have Book 3 started and about 7 chapters done and, well, yeah, still no Chapter 11 on Book 2. It'll be up by the end of this week, but I thought all of the readers (all... dozen or so of you) were owed an explanation. ^_^;

In other goodness, there's still that character design contest going on. I have two entries, people, TWO, and while they are good entries, I'd like to have a little more to go on. So here's the lovely contest rules again. SUBMIT or face the consequences. ~glare~

As was posted earlier, there's currently a contest going on. I've had a whopping ubtwo/u/b entries and, obviously, I'd like to have more, so I'm extending the contest deadline... not that there was one to begin with. First of all, the contest is for a new character for _The Animorphs Alternate Universe Series_ - yup, that's right, I'm putting out a contest so that you can do my work for me. ^_^ A little bit of my idea for this character is this - She's a Weapon, and her Caster is a Controller. She's about the age of the Animorphs crew. So, for the contest, I need a couple of things:

p

ul

li A NAME (duh)

li The Basics - Exact Age, Date of Birth, Height, Weight, physical description (hair color, eye color, any scar, etc)

li Family stuff - What do her parents do for a living, does she have siblings, where does she live, are her parents divorced, blah blah blah and all that.

li Emotional stuff - FEARS - what the hell is she afraid of? Everyone is afraid of something, so give her something to fear - spiders, heights, dogs, cats, to name a few. Also, anything else that fits in this category, including family relationships - does she hate her dad because of whatever, or anything like that.

li History stuff - Her personal history. This one doesn't really have an explination or any real guidelines, so... have fun. ^_^

li Anything else that seems important - Exactly.

/ul

So you need to a href="mailto:shadowmoonsedai@hotmail.com"email me/a all this lovely stuff, either pasted into an email or attached to one (.txt or .doc or .html files only, thanks), and with the subject line of AUS Character (just incase my evil Hotmail decides to Junk Mail it). Make sure everything is labeled so I know what it is! Have fun! 


	13. School's Off

__

The Animorphs Alternate Universe Series  
The Faith  
**Chapter 11 - School's Off  
**_(Sarah) _

  
The sun made a square pattern on the white wash wall. It took me a moment to register where I was: a bedroom, on a bed, but not… school. I remembered sitting in history, watching the video and… and… those monsters. Those monsters that brought the memories… I had left the room. I could not stand it, to see... that. The memories were painful, too painful to handle.  
But after that, after leaving the class, I did not remember anything. From standing in a hallway at the school, to lying on a bed in a strange bedroom - and I was not alone. Someone else was on the bed with me. I tried to get an idea of who it was without looking - they were relatively close to my back, and not moving, but breathing evenly, so they were alive. Whether that was good or bad, depended on who the person was.  
Suddenly, they gave a soft groan, as if they were regaining consciousness. I shifted my shoulders and craned my neck to see over my shoulder. A sandy blonde head turned and blue eyes stared into mine for a moment before realization dawned on the both of us.  
_"Kith!"  
_"Damn!" I tumbled off the bed and faced off against Jake, who was crouched like I was on the opposite side of the bed. We were caught in an interesting stalemate - the confusion of our surroundings and position warring with the need to look like the one in charge. Weapons have an issue with relationships beyond friends - we have an instinctual need to be in charge. But this was the first time Jake and I had ever spared off for that position - I wanted it, because I had more experience and he wanted it because he needed to prove himself. Being a Weapon is a wonderful thing...  
"Good afternoon, children, I see you slept well." We both jumped and I whirled to face the person who was in the doorway of the bedroom. Healer Caster Daniel shook his head slowly, and sighed. "Never trust a newly raised Weapon."  
"Psht. You never said it was important they know the side effects." Now it was Jake's turn to whirl around in surprise. Alay was perched on top of a set of drawers, looking absolutely bored. "See, here I was hoping that you'd, like, spoon or snuggle or something that I could blackmail you with. Unfortunately, you both just kinda…. laid there. You're so useless, the both of ya."  
"What the hell are you doing here?!" I will give Jake credit, it did not take him long to recognize Alay. And I will give Alay credit for not being a _shena_ about his blatant observation. She only shrugged at him and made a face at me. I returned the favor as Healer Caster Daniel took over the conversation.  
"Alay forgot to mention several things to you two, regarding the tea I gave you this morning," he stated flatly, giving _mi itala_ a flat look. "It's a special brew that I make for my children on days when they can't get out of school, but are needed for training reasons, or are just too sick or tired to attend."   
"But..." Jake rubbed his forehead in thought. "Why don't you just call them in absent, or whatever?" Healer Caster Daniel rolled his eyes.   
"Mr. Chapman and I have never really gotten along, for various reasons. Every time I would call the children in sick, back when they first began training, Chapman would tell his secretary to mark it as a skip. Now, he never admitted to it when I confronted him, but a Truth Cast on his secretary told me otherwise." Jake and I exchanged a glance and I saw his lips twitch slightly - Chapman lying on school files - the _old_ Chapman, anyway, before he was a Controller. Supposedly, anyway. Although, why would a Yeerk feel the need for revenge? "In any case, I figured this would work on you two, except _Weapon_ Alay failed to inform you of the side effects, as she was supposed to."   
"_You_ brought it over there," Alay shot back. "Why didn't _you_ tell 'em?"   
"And worry Jean? I think not. She's twice as scary as Steve and that's on a good day and not involving her children," said Daniel flatly. "No, I asked Alay to tell you because I figured she _could_."   
"I _can_," protested Alay. "I just don't much feel like it, that's all." She crossed her arms over her chest and set her jaw stubbornly.   
"You're hopeless!" cried Jake. "I fear for your world if it's full of Weapons like you!"   
"Don't make me kill you, _Trainee_," warned Alay. My body was relaxing slowly after the sudden wake up had I had received. The effects of the tea still hadn't warn off - I was beginning to feel drowsy again and I actually yawned while Alay and Jake traded vague threats and insults back and forth. Because, yes, I was that interested in their conversation and because, yes, Alay is just like that with everybody. While, not everybody. Mostly men. Pretty much all men... pretty much. That's why she's _nec'rinae_, after all.   
"Weapon Sarah, if you would like, the couch in the living room is a great place to take a nap," said Daniel from behind me. "And I can lock these two in here, so it will be quieter." I giggled and nodded.   
"_Veraha,_ Healer Caster Daniel," I answered politely. "I would like that a lot... including the locking them up part."


	14. Virus Part 1

_

The Animorphs Alternate-Universe Series  


_The Faith  
**Chapter 12a - Virus  
**_(Marco)  
_

  
"And _why_ am I here at seven at night? I'm skipping dinner and I _doubt_ my mom bought my "Studying-at-Cassie's-though-I'm-not-quite-sure-why" story." Rachel crossed her arms over her chest and looked for all the world like she was about to have a tantrum. And the meeting hadn't started yet. By the end of the meeting, I _knew_ she would..   
said Tobias. He was worried, I was worried, Cassie was worried, Jake was worried, Ax was worried. The only one not worried was Rachel and, frankly, she didn't care enough about Sarah to be worried even in the slightest. This meeting was supposed to be the one where everything came out in the open - Sarah's truth, the Casting, Alay, the Weapon thing, where she had been the night before… that last one was what I wanted to know the most.   
We all looked up at Tobias, who cursed in Teslahani and plain English before he swooped off the rafters and, of all things, began to demorph. A moment later, illuminated by the orange of the low sun, Alay strolled in, carrying a half conscious Sarah on her back. Jake and I both leapt up at the same time, but by now, Tobias was demorphed. Alay let Sarah fall into his arms and Sarah sunk again his shoulder. She was pale and shaking, and fringes of hair clung to her cheeks and forehead.   
"Well, there's a complication for the meeting plan t'night," said Alay coolly, cocking a hip. "Our girl's got a Caster virus."   
"A what?" I asked as Jake swore.   
"How'd she get it?" he asked. "If it's this far along, she didn't get it last night."   
"Well, no crap, genius," snapped Alay. "She probably got it when she was in the Academy, reporting to Head Caster Hannah. Unfortunately, unless your Healer Caster Daniel deals with this kinda thing at this level, Sarah's on her own." I shared a look with Tobias, who looked disturbed greatly by the conversation that had lost me. Cassie seemed as confused and worried as I was and Rachel just looked confused and annoyed.   
"She's a fire element," said Tobias quietly. "That means…" Alay nodded and there was a flash of fear in her eyes.   
"At stage one, she has a fever and feels weak," she explained flatly, calmly enough. "Exhaustion, fatigue, everything that's she complained about feeling today that we put to her late night last night. At stage two, she has a headache, still feels tired, and her balance is a little skewed…"   
"Alay…" started Tobias. He was scared, I knew it, because I felt the same fear in me. Whatever this was, it couldn't be morphed off. It was like a genetic disease… Casting is a part of the world around the person and if something's wrong with their Casting... Please, Alay, don't say it…   
"At stage three, she loses consciousness," continued Alay, voice level, eyes grim.   
"Please…" whispered Tobias, while I mouthed the same plea. Don't say it, don't say it…   
"Stage four, her body's being ravaged by the heat. She feels cold on the outside, but she's sweating."   
Don't say it…   
"Stage five… there isn't one," she said, voice quiet. "Before stage four ends, she's-"   
"_Don't say it!_" The yell was mine, but the feeling was echoed in the eyes of the people around me - even Rachel, who, as much as she hated Sarah, knew she was still a part of the team. I saw it in Alay's eyes, even as she prepared to rebuke me. But I wasn't about to stand for something I fully believed wouldn't happen… or at least, something I forced myself to believe would never happen. "She won't give up. She knows that she can't." Tobias gave me a nod, and a smile, and I knew he felt the same way. Alay smirked.   
"She needs somewhere to rest, and water, otherwise dehydration will take her before the virus has a chance to," she said. "But, here's the thing. Marco, you can't go near her, because you'll definitely catch it and it will be harder to handle two of you sick than one." This made no sense to me, because Tobias was _holding_ her, for pity's sake, and he's a Caster, same as I. I told Alay what I though, and she arched an eyebrow, then looked at Tobias, who shrugged. "He's a special case. Unlike you, he's grounded, centered, and protected from viruses. You, currently, are more at risk, so don't touch her, understand, _lina atae_?" I made a face her, but nodded. I didn't like being called a little boy, but I didn't feel like arguing. _I _felt tired, but not because I was sick. Because of the damned knife that Emily had given me that hung around my neck. I felt tired because _Sarah_ felt tired.   
"I'll go lay her down," said Tobias. "You can have the honor of explaining to everyone." Alay rolled her eyes and made a face.   
"Thank you oh-so-very-much, _bird_," she said flatly. He grinned and shifted Sarah's weight before he carried her back to the pile of loose hay Cassie's day kept at the back of the barn in an old horse stall. I knew he would keep at eye on her, but I would have liked to be the one to do that… I owed her, in the least, for making such an ass out of myself at school. That, and… other reasons.   
"I'll go get some water," volunteered Cassie, standing up. "Be right back." She trotted out of the barn and stumbled as she tripped over a root or a rock, but kept right on going anyway.   
"There's a lot that needs to be discussed," said Jake, watching Tobias and Sarah. "We could be here a little while." I felt that was an understatement…


	15. Virus Part 2

_

The Animorphs Alternate-Universe Series  


_The Faith  
**Chapter 12b -   
Virus, Part 2 -   
More Expletives Than Needed  
**_(Marco)  
_

  
I pulled my knees up under me and leaned back against the wall. I was definitely feeling whatever Sarah was feeling right now, or, more likely, anyway, I had caught her virus. My limbs were responding slowly to what I wanted them to do, and I felt like I had the flu, but… I couldn't show that. I had to look like I wasn't sick, because I wasn't even sure I _was_ sick. I don't know, maybe I was. I didn't understand how the little dagger thing worked at all, so maybe I'd caught the virus through that. I really had no idea…   
Alay sunk down onto a bale of hay and buried her face in her hands with a sigh.   
"_Ich habe kein angst…_" she murmured to herself. "_Ia hei kai…_ _Kithe mia…_" There was something else wrong, something else that Alay knew, and it was bugging her. Now, I don't exactly like the psycho, but she was a teammate and seeing her worried… well, it worried me too.   
"Alay," I said quietly. "What's a Caster virus?" She lifted her head and regarded me with cool eyes.   
"Her Casting reacting to something in the environment," she said, sitting up. "It's not really a virus… it's more… an allergy, I guess. We just call it a 'virus' because of the symptoms that come with it.   
"But what is it reacting to?" asked Jake. "If it hasn't reacted before to anything… she's been here how long?"   
"A helluva lot shorter time then you're thinkin', Trainee," answered Alay flatly. "At the most, a few months."   
"A few _months_?" asked Jake, confused. "But she moved here at the beginning of last summer…" Alay shook her head. I felt the urge to hide, because I had _known_ this Sarah was a different Sarah and I hadn't shared that fact with Jake. I had lied to him, flat out lied, we all had, but I was the most at fault because Jake was my best friend and… I should have told him.   
"I don't even want to explain this," sighed Alay. "There's a lot going on here that I have no freakin' clue about because I haven't been told. But, as far as the allergy/virus goes, I think it's because when Sarah reported to Head Caster Hannah, her Casting adjusted to differences in the Elementals in the other dimension and didn't adjust fast enough when she came back here, so the different Elementals reacted to each other and… well, here we are." You could have heard a pin drop, between the stunned look on Jake's face and the stunned look on Rachel's too. None of this was really any new news to the rest of us, but I still felt really guilty…   
"Other…dimension?" asked Jake. "She comes from… the Old World?" Old World?   
"Old World?" repeated Rachel, looking from Alay to her cousin. "_What_ Old World?"   
"_Jai, _the World of your ancestors," answered Alay solemnly. "As do I, and Sadie and Emily. Frankly, t'hell if we know _why_ we're here, but… we are. The Ellimist brought us here, I think, more or less, leaving Sadie, Emily, and I to rot in the Yeerk Pool while he switched this Sarah with the one who was here prior to us."   
"Old World?" repeated Rachel, just a little louder, in case we hadn't heard her the first time. "Just what the hell does she mean the 'Old World'? Like the 'Old World' old world? _That_ Old World?" Now it was Jake's turn to look completely confused at his cousin. Personally, I had the look down pat, and Ax was looking a little lost too. Good. At least I wasn't the only one out of the 'Old World' loop. Just what the _heck_ were they talking about?!   
"You…" Jake narrowed his eyes at Rachel. "You… know?" She heaved a sigh and rolled her eyes.   
"Of _course_ I know," she scoffed. "I'm not _that_ out of the loop on our family history. My dad told me about the Old World a few years ago. He wanted me to train to be a… Weapon…" I could see all of the pieces falling into place in Rachel's head, while everything was starting to make sense to me. Sarah's theory about Casters and Weapons in our world was true - _they_ did exist and Jake and Rachel's family was descended from the group that had been lost when the Transgates had become warped. And Alay had called Jake 'Trainee', so that meant then...   
Rachel and I both muttered a similar expletive and Jake turned the confused look to me, now. I didn't even wait for him to ask - I had just lost all sense of humor for this situation. My best friend was a WEAPON and he HADN'T told me. That wasn't cool. Not cool at all. And it didn't make my mood any better to realize that I had done the same thing to him, because it added guilt onto pissed-ness.   
"I'm a Caster, Jake," I told him dully. "Sarah's been teaching me, because we didn't know there were other Casters in the area to teach me. And you're a Weapon. And, yes, Rachel, Sarah's a Weapon. She's a Caster too-"   
"She's a _Cross_," interrupted Alay. "More Weapon than Caster. Sadie's all Caster, I'm all Weapon, and Emily… well, she's more Caster. But she's Teslahani, so she's been trained in some forms of fighting - oh, what the hell am I saying? I'm completely off topic now. We need to get back on track."   
"Back on track?" repeated Rachel. "Bull-" I don't need to fill that word in. "The skank's a _Weapon_. It's been off-track for a while now." Skank. Skank? _Skank?! _  
"Rach, that was uncalled for," berated Jake. "Sarah's on this team and she's not after Tobias, so _get over it_." Thank God for Jake's common sense. He may not have used it often, but when he did, he asserted that logic unto others. Unfortunately, Rachel's in the same family, so that made her immune, apparently, because she glared evil daggers at Jake.   
"What do you know about anything, anyway?" she snapped. "Stay out of things that don't concern you!"   
"Grow up, already!" he snapped back. "You're being such a child!"   
"Better a child than an ass!"   
"Better an ass than a bi-!"   
The ground beneath us suddenly shifted - not shifted, as it moved, shifted as in Shifted, as in the little guys, _seharai nendei_ or Elementals, or whatever you want to call them, moved. Everyone standing was promptly toppled over, with Rachel landing flat on her butt with a yell and Jake falling into Alay, who shoved him off without ceremony and jumped to her feet. I stood too, because the Shift hadn't affected me, sitting on the pale of hay like I'd been.   
"Alay, what is it?" I asked, looking out the barn door as she did. Rachel struggled to her feet and rubbed her backside with a look of absolute pain twisting her face.   
"Friggin'… I think I broke something," she muttered. "And broke it hard, too."   
"Rachel, move." Rachel looked at Alay, who had made the statement with no emotion in her voice whatsoever. I, too, looked at Alay, who had a strange look on her face - some mixture of anger and confusion. "Move, Rachel, _now_." Her voice was so authoritative that _I_ moved as Rachel did the same. But as Rachel and I moved, something else moved too. Not Ax, who was attempting to stand even as we already were, or Jake, who was on Alay's other side, eyes trained on the door, but something else. Something I hadn't expected…


	16. Virus Part 3

_

The Animorphs Alternate Universe Series  


_The Faith  
**Chapter 12c -  
Virus, p3 -   
In Her Eyes  
**_(Tobias)  
  
_  
It's strange. I _knew_ how sick Sarah was, but… as she was laying there, she looked asleep, peaceful. I wasn't sure what to think of that - I was almost sure she had died, but she was still breathing, though it was shallow and weak. She was still burning up with fever and I couldn't think of a thing to do make it better. She couldn't morph this off…   
"_He's a special case. He's centered, grounded, _and_ protected…" _  
_What did she mean by all that anyway?_ I leaned back again the wall of the horse stall and closed my eyes. The horse stall was a nice place to relax - it felt so separate from the everything outside, and it was warm from the sun that shone in through the window. The hay was comfortable and it was just… nice. A good place to think. Unfortunately, thinking wasn't going to solve anything this time… I had no idea what was going to happen to Sarah, no idea what was going to happen with the group now that Alay had joined, no idea what I was going to do about Rachel, or about Alay's plan to hook up Sarah and Marco (I wasn't too fond of that one, actually. Sure, Marco's a nice guy, but he's had a lot of girlfriends and… Sarah's my sister. I gotta protect her). Really, I wanted to just… not worry about any of it. Really, I wanted to be Tobias, just Tobias again. Not Tobias-the-Animorph, not Tobias-the-Caster-Trainee, and especially not Tobias-the-bird.   
I felt the hay move as Sarah shifted, and opened my eyes again.   
_"Would you have me any other way?"_   
Would I? Would I change things? If I could have, would I have gone back to that first night and… changed the way things happened? I would have never even seen Elfangor, or known about the Yeerks, or been given the chance to morph. I never would have learned Sarah's truth or seen that side of her like I had that night… it took a lot to affect Sarah's heart, because life had already callused it to pain. I never would have had a chance with Rachel… given, that's given me a lot more trouble than I would have expected, but still…   
I never would have been an Animorph.   
I never would have been a Caster.   
I never would have known…   
But, in the truth of things, _not_ becoming an Animorph would have done more harm than good. Because the Yeerks would have invaded nonetheless. The Earth wouldn't have had a chance, though, the chance it had now was slim. And I never would have had a sister…   
Well, that's not entirely true. Sarah and I were close before that night at the construction site but… our entire relationship would have been different. Who knows? Maybe I would have gone back on that decision I made the first day I met her. Maybe we would have…   
I gave a mental shudder. Now, I love _mi itala_ dearly, but _ew_, that's way too close for comfort, thank you very much. Non-blood related incest. _Ew_.   
The ground beneath me moved faintly and I saw, more than felt, the disruption. There was a flash in my vision, hundreds of thousands of small, indistinguishable shapes, suddenly moving, and then I was looking at plain ground again. That's something I had been keeping secret from Sarah… I could _see_ the _seharai nendei,_ like Alay, but I was a Caster too, something Alay said never happened. Ever. I… wasn't sure what to make of it, really, but it came in handy, even though I couldn't control it like Alay could.   
There was silence in the barn again, a silence like there had been before but… this time, I was worried. I sat there for a moment, debating - if I went to check out what was happening, I would be leaving Sarah alone and that was a bad idea. But what if everyone needed my help? Finally, I shifted to my knees and was halfway to my feet when I heard Rachel yell and Alay swear, some jumble of Teslahani and English that came out in a big rush. Just what the hell was going on!?   
"Marco, _move_!" I jumped to my feet and took in the site that presented itself - Jake was kneeling over Rachel, who lay on the ground, presumably unconscious. Alay was standing in front of Marco, as if she was protecting him, and Ax held his tailblade at _Cassie's_ throat.   
Everyone was silent.   
At my feet, Sarah stirred, her soft groan breaking the tense silent. Cassie lifted her hand and a cold light flickered in her eyes. The ground moved, and shook, sending everyone falling, including Ax, who yanked his tailblade back so as not to accidentally hit Cassie. I took a step back, to steady myself, and hit the wall, which upset my balance and made me fall into the hay. I pushed myself up on my hands as I heard the creak of the stall door opening - Cassie stood over me and Sarah, that same cold look in her eyes. It didn't look like Cassie and… there was something else. Something about the way she looked at me… as if… she didn't know who I was. Something inside me reacted to the look and I went cold with fear. This wasn't Cassie… this wasn't…   
She was leaning over me, the look in her eyes keeping some kind of strange hold over me. I wanted to move, to get away but… I couldn't-   
And suddenly, Cassie's eyes were no longer on me. Every muscle I had been holding released itself and I took a deep breath - than froze again. Cassie's attention had turned to Sarah, who was laying, curled up on her side, still unconscious. For reasons I didn't know, a smirk curled on Cassie's lip, the kind where it was obvious she found something ironically funny. She lifted her hand and snapped her fingers once - the air around us, Sarah specifically, shifted, and Sarah was lifted into the air, until she hung like a marionette puppet a foot or so off the ground. She was still unconscious and her head hung down to her chest, every muscle in her body limp and useless. There was still a virus in her system and it would have made short work of her major muscle groups by now… but that didn't worry me. What worried me was that Cassie had Sarah in a tight Air Cast-   
Air _Cast_?? _Cassie?? _  
Everything clicked. And now I _knew_ we were all in deep, deep, crap. 


	17. Virus Part 4

_

The Animorphs Alternate Universe Series  


_The Faith  
**Chapter 12d -   
Virus, p4 -  
What She Didn't Tell Us  
**_(Marco)  
_  
"Rachel? Rach!"   
I was still fully unaware of what had happened. Cassie… and Rachel… Cassie had just touched her. That's all, touched her, and Rachel had cried out, than fallen. She was, at best, unconscious, at worst…   
"I should have guessed…" Alay was looking at Jake, who was knelt over Rachel, with a look in her eyes that I recognized as the look of someone who was feeling failure. "This wouldn't have happened…"   
"'Lay," I asked quietly. "_What_ happened?" Cassie had looked at me, after she had done whatever she had done to Rachel, and there was this look in her eyes… I have never seen anything like that in anyone's eyes, especially not in Cassie's. And I hoped never to see it again…   
"Her Elemental Spirit," murmured Alay. "It woke up. And, now, it's finding ways to quell the hunger…"   
"Hunger?" I repeated. Hunger… that didn't sound good.   
"They… feed, off of already awoken Caster spirits. Sort of. Kind of. Oh, t'hell, I don't know how to explain it! Casters whose spirits are already awake attract _seharai nendei, _Elementals, and they just sort of hang around. It's that connection with the Elementals that give Casters their powers. The weaker the connection, the weaker the Caster, and visa versa. Elemental Spirits, that is, when we say they wake up 'violently', it is because they take complete control of the Caster and begin to… to… suck away, I guess is the best way to describe it, the Elementals clinging to other Casters." She was silent again, the wheels obviously turning in her head. I would have given a million dollars to know what she knew and wasn't saying. Something was wrong with this situation…   
Cassie had walked right past me.   
After she had looked at me, she had walked right past me, towards Tobias and Sarah. It was if… I was nothing to her. But I was. I was a Caster too…   
"Why did she leave me alone?" I asked, scared and curious at the same time. Something nagged at brain, something Alay had said earlier, about Tobias, and being protected. Protected by _what_?   
"Because I lied to you," answered Alay. "You aren't in any danger of catching Sarah's virus. She has you protected, guarded, with inverted shields that let Elementals go and come as they please, but Elemental spirits can't do a thing to 'em. She probably suspected, at least, that something like this would happen… because Tobias is protected in the same way."   
"You… lied…?" The air gave a rapid, strange feeling shift. It was if it was being displaced, or separated, I guess is a better description. Alay whirled around with a gasp, and I was quick to follow. Cassie had reached the horse stall where Tobias and Sarah were, and was currently levitating an unconscious Sarah, or, at least holding her up. Sarah looked like a rag doll being held in unseen hands, and she was completely unaware of what was happening to her. That wasn't good…   
asked Ax, mirroring my own uncertainty.   
"She's toying with her," said Alay. "Because she knows Sarah is the one who created the shields. Just because they're inverted doesn't mean she can't see them… if she takes Sarah's energy, your shields will be lost… and so will Sarah. She won't survive the trauma of having part of herself ripped away." Who would, I wondered briefly, even as Alay's words sunk in. Sarah… lost.. as in, Sarah… dead.   
"We have to stop her!"   
"No!" Alay grabbed my arm and shook her head, her eyes wide. "You can't, don't even try. You won't do any good risking your life. You… have to face the facts." She said it and didn't believe, I knew. We couldn't just stand around and watch Sarah die. She was Alay's _itala_ and, even though I had known Alay only shortly, she was as stubborn as she was scary. She made a face at me. "You, I hate. But we're _not_ just blinding rushing forward and _you_ aren't going to do a damn thing, understand my English?" I gave a blank nod, though I had every intention of doing _something_, at least. "Good. Ax, we need to flank Cassie, and fast. Take her left because your tail can hit over the side of the horse-stall wall. I get her from behind. Stun her, okay?"   
I opened my mouth to say something, when suddenly, the air, the ground, and something else shifted. Two somethings else, things I didn't remember having felt shift before. The faint shifting of Fire and Water Elementals. Alay froze in her own confusion, her eyes again wide.   
"She's… healing her?" she inquired. "I've never head of an Elemental doing a Heal Cast before…"   
"Alay, _why_ would a power-hungry being need to heal its victim?" I asked flatly. She shrugged.   
"It's easier to strip away Elementals if the Caster is weak," she said, placing her hands on her hips. "So this makes no sense." Her face paled and she clapped a hand over her mouth. "Oh, Goddess, it isn't possible…"   
asked Ax, obviously a little put out by the fact that I could sense the Casts and Alay could see them. He was blind to the things that were happening, short of what we told him.   
"She's………" Alay fell silent, and shuddered. "Hannah was right…"   
"_About what?_" I was losing my patience. Alay's whole being cryptic thing was annoying the hell out of me, especially because she was being cryptic about _important_ things!   
"Twins are supposed to have similar, if not the same, connection with Elementals," said Alay. "Their Spirits usually waken about the same time. It was raining when Emily's Spirit awoke. She's a Water Elemental Spirit, so the rain aided her, but Sarah's a Fire, so it slowed down the process…" I knit my brow in confusion, attempting to dechiper what Alay had said, but Ax beat me too it.   
he said, quite coolly, in fact, while my brain went into blank mode. 


	18. Virus Part 5

_

The Animorphs Alternate Universe Series  


_The Faith  
**Chapter 12e -  
Virus, p5 -  
Again With The Barn Wall  
**_(Tobias)  
_  
I heard Ax's revelation even as the thought occurred to me. It sent a cold shiver down my spine - what it meant for Sarah and what it could mean for the rest of us. Emily's Elemental Spirit awakening had caused a lot of damage and, from what Sarah had said and from what I had seen, Emily was powerful. Sarah, on the other hand, was not. If she was going to become as strong as her sister, than something drastic had to happen. But if the Spirit that had a hold of Cassie was planning on forcing out Sarah's Spirit, then we would have _two_ Elemental Spirits running around, as opposed to just one, both wanting the same thing… it wouldn't be pretty, that was for sure.   
But Sarah didn't seem to be responding to Cassie's healing. She remained unconscious, hanging there, lifeless, until Cassie gave finally gave a disgusted sigh. I thought, or stupidly assumed, if you want a more specific description, that Evil Cassie would let her go, given that she was obviously not in a state to wake up herself, much less have her _seharai raisha _wake up. Oh, but I was wrong. _Very wrong_. Instead, Evil Elemental Spirit Cassie flicked her wrist and sent Sarah flying through the back wall of the horse stall, which, ironically, was also a wall of the barn. Wood splintering is a bad enough sound, but the dull thud that was Sarah's body limply hitting the ground on the other side of the wall is something I never hope to hear again, not for anyone, not for _mi itala_.   
Everyone was silent. The first sound we heard was Marco, who seemed to be the first to gasp. But something else was wrong, because the gasp became a cough, something that was closer kin to a choking wretch, and he gripped his chest before he just… collapsed, on the floor. That broke whatever had taken a hold of us and Cassie moved to walk out of the hole she had created, while Alay paused long enough to check on Marco, before dashing to the stall, vaulting the low wall, and placing herself between Cassie and the newly made exit. I stumbled up and out of the hole, going straight to Sarah's side while Ax morphed human and followed my lead. Jake, I knew, would check on Marco and watch both Rachel and Marco.   
Rachel…   
There was this twinge of guilt, because I was putting all of my effort into watching over Sarah, and protecting her, but I had done nothing for Rachel, not even gone to see if she was okay. But… Sarah was family, albeit not blood family, and Rachel… she was my girlfriend. In another time, in another situation, she would have been the most important thing to me, but… family came first, now, because I had never had a family before to care about.   
"Sarah?" She had landed on her side, or rolled over onto it on her own, and I was afraid to death that I had lost her. Alay had said she wouldn't survive trauma and being thrown through a barn for the third time in her life counted as 'trauma'. But when I gently turned her onto her back, she looked up at me with a confused expression set in big eyes. The entire left sleeve of her shirt was torn and already soaking up the blood from the deep scratches and gouges that were both new wounds and old wounds reopened.   
"_Mei…?_" She blinked and raised her right hand to her face. "_Mi atala… mei…?_"   
"Cassie's Elemental Spirit has awoken," I explained slowly. "She attacked you and threw you through one of the barn walls. You're bleeding but… it can be morphed off."   
"_Seharai raisha?_" she repeated. I wasn't surprised English seemed beyond her at the moment - more likely than not, she had a concussion and wouldn't be thinking too hard. "_Cassie-hitala?_" She blinked again and her hand fell to her chest. "_Ia… dehnke… Medai elan?_"   
"Everyone's…" Do I lie to her? Should I tell her Rachel and Marco were unconscious and that Alay was currently in a silent stand off with the insane, Evil Cassie?   
"They are fine. Neh. Fiiiineh." Ax stopped and looked slightly irritated. "They are fine, Sarah." She looked up at him and, for a moment, didn't seem to recognize him.   
"Nades………?" she asked calmly. "_Iades Sarah. Nades Aximili-atala-shorn?_" He nodded, though, really, I think he was as confused as I was. Sarah had obviously hit her head very hard, because she had made no real attempt to do anything related to her personality and the situation. Had she been in her right mind, she would have been up in a flash, not caring about anyone's warnings, and placing herself between Cassie and Alay, after she had checked on Marco and Rachel and done what she could for them.   
came Ax's thought-speak.   
"Thanks, Ax." _Let's move her gently - I think she has some sort of head injury._   
"I don't remember saying you could leave!! Get the hell back here, damn it!" There was a loud thud as Alay tackled Cassie, causing them both to fall through the hole and to the ground. "Stay!" commanded the Weapon, pinning down Cassie's arms with her knees and Cassie's shoulders with her hands.   
"Let us hurry," said Ax. "Sarah, we need to move you. Can you walk?"   
"_Ia dehnke kaiait… jaia,_" she said quietly. "_Iades veranda…_"   
"It's not your fault," I told her gently. "We can move you just fine on-" Her hands suddenly grabbed the shirt of my morphing outfit, and of Ax's as well, and yanked us down. I saw something, something big, move out of the corner of my I and felt a wave of heat before there was an explosion and-. 


	19. Virus Conclusion

_

The Animorphs Alternate Universe Series  


_The Faith  
**Chapter 13 -   
Virus, P-6-  
What It Comes Down To  
**_(Tobias)_

  
Silence, broken by the roar of fire. We were surrounded by a dome of the stuff, of fire, and it had incinerated something on the outside of it, but we were barely warm. Controlled Fire Elementals, and very well controlled at that. The Cast was strong, and whoever had Cast it, was strong as well.   
asked Ax, privately.   
"Tobias, Ax, just stay down!" Alay's yell was muffled slightly by the roar of fire and the fact she was still wrestling with Cassie. I had a distinct feeling that Cassie, Evil Cassie, could get Alay off her with any method of Casting she chose, but… she hadn't. "Whatever Sarah does, keep your heads down! That fire will crisp you faster than a Dracon beam!"   
_Alay, what the hell is happening?_ Sarah's grip slackened, but, heeding Alay's warning, Ax and I both stayed crouched above her, with the fire still swirling around above us.   
_The First Hell if I know! Hellfire, I don't even know if either of you can hear me, but your friend's got a choke hold to kill a bear and it's making it freakin' hard to talk!   
_"A choke hold?" I whispered to Ax. He had the same look I did - A choke hold? _Cassie? _  
Sarah moved and, without warning, shoved both of us roughly aside. I fell back on my hands and felt a rush of heat as the wall and I came close to meeting. Sarah stood, making the entire dome disappear, thankfully, just as Ax tumbled over. He landed safely right where the dome had been and stumbled to his feet.   
"'The hell-?!" Cassie tossed Alay and rolled over onto her stomach, a raging anger burning in her eyes as she crawled to her feet and straightened up. Alay wasn't moving from where she had landed, meaning she was unconscious, and no help at all.  
  
Sarah took a step forward, and Cassie matched her movement, stepping in again, then circling, then stepping, then circling. It was like they were dancing - one step, partial turn, step in, partial turn, repeat. Then, the air gave a rapid double shift and the immediate area surrounding them became a giant Air Cast Shield, encasing them entirely.   
"They do not wish for us to interfere, obviously," stated Ax.   
"Wrong, Andalite," came a cool voice over our shoulders. "They wish to keep each other in." I leaned my head back and looked into disturbing familiar blue eyes. Wearing jeans and a yellow tanktop, _Emily_ stood over us, in almost the same spot Sarah had stood a moment before. She offered me a weak smile. "We had wished to stay hidden, but allowing this to continue will result in the loss of either of my host's _itelan_ or her friend. As well, both are warriors against the Yeerk Invasion, as are we." We…? Why did she keep saying we…?   
"Collaborator," sneered Ax coldly. A sad look flashed through Emily's eyes as she looked at him, then she only shook her head.   
"Andalite, there are many things you will never understand," she said softly. "Emily wants her freedom the same as everyone, but, without me, she would be killed. In this, we have made an agreement."   
"What do you mean they wish to keep each other in?" Time for a definite subject change, but there was a lot to process now - Emily _knew_ about the Animorphs now, about Sarah's involvement and… she knew Ax was an Andalite. Just how much else did she know?! This could be bad. But…   
"_As well, both are warriors against the Yeerk Invasion, as are we…" _  
Was it possible? Were Emily and her Yeerk on our side, hiding in the dugouts of the other team? That was good… right?   
"Both are surrounded by raw Caster energy right now, though Sarah's is partially grounded," explained Emily. She wiped her hands on her jeans and lifted them in front of her. "The only way to stop the both of them at once is over power them. We did not see what happened inside of the barn, though we sensed two people lose the raw energy surrounding them. One was the boy called Marco, we know this. The other?"   
"Marco?" I asked, confused. "No one touched Marco…" She cocked her head to the side, then gave a quiet laugh.   
"Ah, then you do not know," she said, grinning. I opened my mouth, but she held up her hand, letting the other fall to her side. "I will say nothing. Emily wishes Marco to tell you, when he is ready, for she fears he does not know fully what is happening. Who was the other?"   
"That is none of your business," said Ax. "What is your plan, Yeerk?" She blinked, hand falling, and an irritation worthy of _mi itala_ began to burn in her eyes.   
"Listen, you… you… _tedesreca_," she said fiercely, and I knew this was Emily, not the Yeerk. "Hilane is doing the best he can with your attitude and, _tades ni bailai Shalier_, would it kill you to shove your pride for just fifteen minutes, so we get on with this?!" Ax was little taken aback and I was trying hard to laugh at the look on his face - very few times had the _host_ of a Yeerk rebuked him. Most of the time, the host shared the same hatred of Yeerks as he did, but, in Emily's case, it wasn't so. "_Veraha!" _exclaimed Emily, before she blinked and took a slow breath. When her eyes opened again, they were calm, though bemused.   
"Andalite, I would apologize, if she were not on the right track," she said, now back to being Controlled. "Now, please, stay where you are, so that neither of you are injured." She lifted her hands again and, this time, snapped her finger with her left hand, then her right. The tight Air Cast Shields around Sarah and Cassie disappeared and a wave of rolling heat fell across us. Both of them were sweating and panting hard, their skin red, clothes soaked through. "When two _seharai raishai_ trap themselves like that, they will usually heat the air around them until one or the other pass out and then who is left standing, takes the losers energy," explained Emily. "Does that make sense?"   
"Unfortunately," I grimaced. That sounded like an easy way to _die_, forget passing out. Steamed alive inside an Air Cast Shield…   
"What now, Ye- what now?" asked Ax, coolly, standing up. I did the same as Emily/Hilane gave a low laugh.   
"Now they attack the biggest source of raw Caster energy they have felt all day," she answered, spreading her arms wide. Sarah whirled on her heel and two pairs of slightly blank eyes locked onto the prone-standing Caster Collaborator. I didn't like the smiles that crossed their faces, but Emily was not afraid, even as they both lunged at her with similarly feral looks. Cassie grabbed one arm , placing her hand on Emily's shoulder, and Sarah did the same to the other arm. At first, it seemed as if nothing was happening, then Cassie's entire body went slack and she collapsed without a sound. Ax knelt by her side and carefully pulled her away from the sisters. Sarah, on the other hand, didn't seem so eager to give up.   
"_Iades… iades hedaen…"_ she whispered, angrily. _"Kih-daie…"_ Five years… five years since what? Since… since Emily's _seharai raisha _had attacked her. This wasn't about getting Emily's Caster Energy… it was about revenge.   
_"Ia deh,"_ said Emily, softly. "_Ia deh."_ And she had expected as much! Emily had expected Sarah's _seharai raisha_ to want revenge for what had happened between them.   
But how much damage could Sarah's Elemental Spirit to do Emily, a fully grounded Caster? It was hard to tell, because I didn't know how much power Emily had. But…   
There was more at danger then just Emily. Emily, I felt, could take the abuse, but the Caster virus had ravaged Sarah's body. How much could _she_ take of the energy flowing into her?   
"_Itelan, _stop," whispered Emily, placing her free hand on Sarah's shoulder. "_Now_!" Her voice changed so suddenly, even I was scared - I hadn't expected so much anger from such a seemingly placid person. Neither had Sarah, who jerked away from her sister as if burned, fear in her eyes. Then she too, collapsed, followed quickly by Emily, who fell to her knees with a sigh. Her breath came in short, quick gasps and she wimpered softly, clutching the hand Sarah had held to her chest. I went to her side, to help her, but she waved me off. "They will be okay now," she said quietly. "It will be a struggle for Sarah to understand what has happened but… she will not remember. No one ever does." She scrubbed her face in her hands and offered me a weak smile, even as I moved to Sarah' side. "Please, for her sake, do not tell her of my agreement with her sister. We do not think she will understand…" I nodded - she was right, of course. Sarah saw the world in strict facts sometimes and the fact that her sister had made a deal with the Yeerk controlling her was nothing short of betrayal.   
"Ye- Hilane," said Ax quietly. "Thank you, for what you have done." Emily nodded sagely to him and rested her hands in her lap.   
"Aximili-Esgarouth-Isthill, I will tell this to you now," she said calmly. "We that remain of the group from Sarah's world, the girl called Sadie and I, are very different. I wish to see the end to this violent method of destruction and conquering and do things as they are done in the world this host body originates from. But Feris, the Yeerk who inhabits the other, wants only to further her own power, by any means possible. I am privy to her plans, for she knows not my true feelings, and what she plans is nothing short of ignorant and fueled only by her greed. If she succeeds, she will not only out _your_ secrets - both of your Andalite given powers and heritage - but also Sarah and Alay's Caster and Weapon origins, which might, of course, lead to the outing of others of the same status." This was all very scary to hear, but even scarier was the fact that Emily and Hilane knew this already, and Sadie as well.   
"Hilane, how is it you know so much?" asked Ax, almost as if he were reading my mind. She smiled at the both of us in turn and shook her head.   
"Though Sarah cannot feel it as she used to, there is still a bond between both her and Emily, something they shared long before they came here and something that was damaged by Sarah's arrival here and by her own self doubt. It is complicated to explain, but many things Sarah knows Emily and I know as well. Feris knows what she does because Epsil, Alay's Yeerk, was her partner and told her many things she would not have known on her own." She heaved a long sigh. "I have been from the pool for too long. They will wonder where I have gone if I remain here much longer. Jildai, _vercha_!" The tree line parted silently and out stepped a lanky, though still deadly looking, Hork-Bajir. My guard went up immediately, as did Ax's, but this was not for us. Instead, it ignored us and went to Emily, gingerly picking her up and cradling her against its chest gently.   
"Thank you, my friend," said Emily quietly, patting its shoulder. "Before I forget, Tobias, or Aximili, will you give this to Marco and tell him to return it to my sister? I'm afraid Emily borrowed it the day they arrived here and has not had a chance to return it." She pulled something from her hand and held it out - remarkable, Ax was the one who stood to take it, staring at her defiantly as he did so. "Thank you," she said to him, clasping his hand between hers. "Make sure it is Marco who gives it to her. Otherwise, not all will work out as we wish it to." She smirked, and winked at me, as I realized what she meant. Not 'we' as in Hilane and Emily, but 'we' as they and me. Actually, them and Alay, since getting Sarah and Marco together was _her_ big idea.   
"_Emily!_" Alay stumbled to her feet, then fell to her knees again, clutching her ribs with a gasp of pain. "Why?" she managed weakly. "Why are you here?"   
"To protect my family, of course," answered Emily coolly, before she looked down at me from her perch against the Hork-Bajir's chest. "And their families, too. _Kai Desdah Aendesi!_" she called as the Hork-Bajir ambled off into the woods, carrying her as if she was the most fragile thing it had ever touched.   
When they were gone, I took a moment to look around - the hole in the barn wall, which Jake was stepping out of off, large holes of ripped ground at random spots, a handful of black soot piles, and Alay, Cassie, and Sarah, all either half conscious and fully out, then Ax and I who were somewhere between lost and confused.   
"I almost refuse to ask what happened," said Jake. "Except that I think nothing will make sense unless I do."   
"Let's get everyone back inside the barn and demorph," I said. "This will take some time to explain."


	20. Gift of Farewell

_

The Animorphs Alternate Universe Series  


_The Faith  
**Chapter 14 - Gift of Farwell  
**_(Marco)  
_   
The waves crashed against the wet sand, leaving more water behind to soak in and darken the color of the ground. They, the waves, barely touched Sarah's toes from where she was, halfway between the completely dry sand and the saturated sand. The cool beach weather had caused her to dress in jeans and a black jacket, but the jacket was slung on the ground next to her and the bare shoulders of her shirt let her soak in as much of the fall sun as was possible. She was just sitting there, watching the water, while I stood about twenty feet back from her, debating exactly what I was supposed to do. Tobias had given me something to give to Sarah, telling me to tell her that I found it, but not telling me where _he_ had gotten it. It was just a ring, a small, silver ring of intricate lines set around a purple stone that was cut into the shape of a tiny moon.   
"I am not sure how long you plan on standing there, but you're making _me_ anxious." Sarah turned her head and looked at me over her shoulder, making me swallow my own breath. There was a soft reddish light that highlighted the wispy curls of hair that fell across her face and the red made the blue in her eyes look almost lavender. "Well?"   
"Sorry," I said quickly, making my way through the sand to sit next to her. We sat in the silence of the ending afternoon for a little bit, until a thin breeze came up, making Sarah shiver. I picked up her coat, forgetting I held the ring in my hand, and dropping the ring as I slung her coat across her shoulders. She offered me a smile of thanks as I scooped up the ring.   
"_Meides?_" she asked, cocking her head to the side. I held it out to her.   
"I found it," I lied. "And I don't have much use for rings so…" She closed her eyes slowly and took in a shaky breath.   
"She gave this to you," she whispered, taking the ring from my hand and stretching her legs out in front of her and holding her hand against her chest. "My sister, _mi itelan_, gave this to you." It took me a moment, then I had a distinct urge to throttle Tobias. _Emily_ had shown up again and _she_ had given the ring to him, something he had failed to mention to me.   
"Sarah… I…" I didn't know what to tell her. As mad as I was at Tobias, it didn't seem like the right idea to point the finger of blame at him for lying. But Sarah only shook her head.   
"She probably told you not to tell me it was from her," she said, wrapping her free hand around the hand that clutched the ring. "Because… she would. Because she never had the courage to say goodbye in person…"   
"Goodbye?" I asked. She held out her hands in front of her and opened her fingers.   
"Our Teslahani names, woven of silver strands," she said quietly. "Seharenae and Eaimae, the names of the Twin God and Goddess of Life and Death. Silver, because we were born the daughters of a priest-in-training. The stone is our birth stone, _Jehidai,_ and the cut… because I wanted to be a Priestess…" She reached into the inside pocket of her jacket and shakily pulled out the matching ring - but the stone was a different cut, instead it was a iosolese triangle, with the top being the shortest side and the long sides pointing down. "She wanted to Head Caster Healer, like our Aunt. That is why the stones are different." It was becoming a visible struggle for her to keep from crying but…   
"You traded rings," I said, answering my own question. "And she gave it back because…"   
"Because she does not plan on coming back…" Tears began slide down her cheeks, though she didn't look like she was crying. I wanted to tell her not to worry, that it was probably all some Yeerk trick to shatter her confidence, but I knew… I knew, if Emily was anything like Sarah, she _had_ given the ring to Tobias, or at least, had her Yeerk do it. Either that, or the Yeerk was trying to get to Sarah by giving back something that it _knew_ it would effect her.   
"_Aendes laertai na, Emaiae-itelan,_" whispered Sarah, wrapping her fingers around the rings. "_Iades veranda…"_   
"Sarah…" She turned her face into my shoulder and began to cry with silent sobs. I wasn't sure what to do at first - Sarah had never cried, that I had seen, and it was unnerving to see someone who was usually all strength breakdown like she did. But it had to hurt, to have something like returned to her. It was a blow to the belief that she, Sarah, could do her Mission and get everyone from her world home safe. Emily didn't plan on returning…   
But I only hesistated a fraction of a second before I wrapped my arms around her and held her while she cried. Because I knew… I knew what it was like to have family on the other side. **__**

End Book 2: The Faith


	21. Author Interlude

**

Interlude  
Author Goodness  
and  
Re-reposting of the Contest  


**

Right, so, okay, this is just a quick little thing. I know that, somewhere along the line, I said that the character would be chosen at the end of Book 2 for use in Book 3... well, I've already started book 3 and the character hasn't come up yet and probably won't. What does this mean for the rest of you? Well, A) you have more time on the contest, which, again, needs a larger variety in submissions. And, B) that I don't have to go through and re-rewrite book 3, keeping it from being posted sooner. Believe me, this write that I'm doing is the second one because the original plot went the sum-total of nowhere. ~sigh~ This also means that **I** have the time to make sure everything in book 3 is perfect. ^_^ It's definitely more involved than the last two. That's all I'm saying! ~ SMS 

There's still that character design contest going on. I have two entries, people, TWO, and while they are good entries, I'd like to have a little more to go on. So here's the lovely contest rules again. SUBMIT or face the consequences. ~glare~

As was posted earlier, there's currently a contest going on. I've had a whopping **two** entries and, obviously, I'd like to have more, so I'm extending the contest deadline... not that there was one to begin with. First of all, the contest is for a new character for _The Animorphs Alternate Universe Series_ - yup, that's right, I'm putting out a contest so that you can do my work for me. ^_^ A little bit of my idea for this character is this - She's a Weapon, and her Caster is a Controller. She's about the age of the Animorphs crew. So, for the contest, I need a couple of things:

**A NAME (duh)  
**The Basics - Exact Age, Date of Birth, Height, Weight, physical description (hair color, eye color, any scar, etc)  
**Family stuff - What do her parents do for a living, does she have siblings, where does she live, are her parents divorced, blah blah blah and all that.  
**Emotional stuff - FEARS - what the hell is she afraid of? Everyone is afraid of something, so give her something to fear - spiders, heights, dogs, cats, to name a few. Also, anything else that fits in this category, including family relationships - does she hate her dad because of whatever, or anything like that.  
**History stuff - Her personal history. This one doesn't really have an explination or any real guidelines, so... have fun. ^_^  
**Anything else that seems important - Exactly.  
So you need to email me all this lovely stuff at shadowmoonsedai@hotmail.com , either pasted into an email or attached to one (.txt or .doc or .html files only, thanks), and with the subject line of AUS Character (just incase my evil Hotmail decides to Junk Mail it). Make sure everything is labeled so I know what it is! Have fun! 


End file.
